PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — One look at U.S. forward Brianna Decker’s face, sweaty and frowning after her team’s 2-1 loss to Canada on Thursday dispelled the notion that the teams’ preliminary-round finale at Kwandong Hockey Centre meant nothing because both had clinched spots in the Olympic tournament semifinals.

One glance at the pushing and shoving at the end, one look at the rueful expression of U.S. forward Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and the happy smile of Canada goalie Genevieve Lacasse, who foiled a penalty shot by Lamoureux-Davidson in the second period while making 44 total saves, and there could be no doubt how much this matchup meant to the pride and sense of history of players on both sides of a rivalry that has carried women’s hockey so well for so long.

“It’s the two giants of the world of hockey colliding,” said U.S. forward Hilary Knight, who had a chance to tie the score in the waning seconds but missed a swipe at a rapidly moving pass during a frantic scramble. “It’s a great game. It’s a lot of fun and there’s a different level of compete.”

At stake Thursday was playoff seeding, not an Olympic gold medal, although these teams almost certainly will meet in the final for a third consecutive time and keep the championship in North America. There have been only six women’s Olympic hockey tournaments: the first was at Nagano, Japan, in 1998 and was won by the U.S. but Canada has won the rest. And despite occasional promising showings from Finland and Sweden and, lately, Switzerland, the top step of the medal stand more than likely will be occupied by Canada or the U.S.

The two superpowers will rest up for the semifinals while the other six teams will battle in the quarterfinals. The winners of the two quarterfinals advance to the semifinals. Canada (3-0) will have a higher seeding than the U.S. (2-1).

Neither team scored in the first period, but Canada broke through at 7 minutes, 18 seconds of the second period. U.S. defenseman Megan Keller was serving an interference penalty when forward Meghan Agosta, a Vancouver police constable, took a fine pass from Natalie Spooner and beat goalie Maddie Rooney from close range.

Canada extended its lead to 2-0 at 14:56 of the second period when Sarah Nurse, skating up the left side, unleashed a shot from the circle that caught Rooney on the shoulder and popped up and under the crossbar. Nurse is a cousin of defenseman Darnell Nurse of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.

The Americans were awarded a penalty shot at 16:08 of the second period after Canada’s Haley Irwin closed her hand on the puck in the crease, but Lamoureux-Davidson said she thought her backhander caught the knob of Lacasse’s stick. Another good chance, this one by Decker during a power play, rang off the right post.

“We take what we can and build off of it. The things we need to fix, we have to get better at that. We have to take the positives where we can,” Lamoureux-Davidson said. “We’ve got to bury our chances. We had a lot of shots on net and a lot of opportunities and some loose pucks around the net and we were just a few inches off on a lot of them.”

Mikaela Shiffrin finishes 4th in slalom

The U.S. alpine skiing sensation failed to medal her best event Friday, finishing fourth in the slalom at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

A day after opening her Games with a gold medal in the giant slalom at the Yongpyong Alpine Center, Shiffrin entered the slalom as the heavy favorite. She won the event four years ago in Sochi at age 18, becoming the youngest Olympic slalom medalist in history, and is the world’s top-ranked competitor in the event.

The gold medal seemed to be a forgone conclusion as the 22-year-old Shiffrin chased history at these Games.

Instead, Sweden’s Frida Hansdotter won the gold, Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener won silver and Austria’s Katharina Gallhuber captured bronze.

Germany dominates luge

Germany won the luge relay, giving it three of the four luge gold medals at the 2018 Games. The United States was fourth, a tenth of a second out of the medals.

Young Swede wins biathlon

Hanna Oeberg of Sweden, 22, won the women’s 15-kilometer biathlon for the first significant win of her career. Oeberg hit every target — one of only two competitors to do so — and won by 24 seconds. Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia was second and Laura Dahlmeier of Germany, who won the first two women’s biathlon events at these Olympics, was third.

Norway wins in cross-country

Ragnhild Haga of Norway won the women’s 10-kilometer cross-country race. American Jessica Diggins finished fifth, less than four seconds out of the medals. No American has won a cross-country medal since 1976.

Frenchman repeats in snowboard cross

Pierre Vaultier of France defended his title in the men’s snowboard cross competition, narrowly beating out Jarryd Hughes of Australia. Vaultier had almost missed the final when he crashed with two other riders in the semi. But he got back in the race and sneaked into the last qualifying spot.