Switzerland fought mighty Canada to a draw that had to be settled in a shootout. With Canadians across the country nervously watching every shot, Sidney Crosby finally scored the decisive goal to give the host country a 3-2 win that brought more feelings of relief than celebration.

"My psyche was tough for me the whole game, knowing that it's a pressure game, people expect us to walk right through that team," Canadian goalie Martin Brodeur said.

"At least getting the win like that is definitely nice." It was four years ago in Turin that the Swiss stunned Canada 2-0, sending the Canadians spiraling to a seventh-place finish. Thursday's result was probably even more surprising: Canada has a younger, better team this time around and is playing at home with the expectation of winning gold.

"This team is way better than the team we played in Italy," said Switzerland's Martin Pluss, who was denied by Brodeur in the final attempt of the shootout. "They skate better, they're younger, they're fresh." Also, a shootout win doesn't count as much in the standings as a regulation win, so the result moved Canada down to second place in Group A. The United States took sole possession of first in the group with a 6-1 win over Norway.

Canada and the United States meet in a North American showdown Sunday, and only the group winner is assured of advancing to the quarterfinals without needing an extra game in a newly added qualification round.

Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau scored the goals that gave Canada a 2-0 lead, but Ivo Ruthemann and Patrick von Gunten tied the game in the second period. After a scoreless third period and a five-minute overtime, the first three shooters for each team in the shootout failed to find the net. Crosby then put a wrist shot past Jonas Hiller with his second attempt.

"It's probably not a bad thing for us to go through that kind of desperation and tight hockey like that," Crosby said, "because it's not going to get any easier as we move on here." Thursday's other game in the men's draw also needed a shootout. Slovakia beat Russia 2-1 when Pavol Demitra scored on the Slovaks' seventh attempt in the tiebreaker.

The United States scored three times in the final six minutes of its win over Norway. Defenseman Brian Rafalski had two goals, and Phil Kessel, Chris Drury, Patrick Kane and Ryan Malone each scored once for the Americans, who outshot the Norwegians 39-11.

"We've got some work to do still, there's no question about that," US captain Jamie Langenbrunner said.

"We're making far too many mistakes we can't be making against Canada." Marius Holtet scored a short-handed goal in the second period for Norway, which has been outscored 14-1 in these Olympics.

"We were in it for 55 minutes," Holtet said. "They were controlling the game, but we were hanging in there and probably should have scored on a couple more of our other chances." Slovakia and Russia failed to produce a winner after three regulation periods and a 5-minute overtime. Alex Morozov gave Russia the lead in the second period, but Marian Hossa tied the game midway through the third.

So the game went to a shootout. Demitra sent the Slovaks' fans home happy when he skated to the left, swooped to the front of the crease and patiently waited for goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to go down before flicking a shot high and into the net.

Bryzgalov stopped 31 shots through the overtime for the Russians, and Jaroslav Halak had 36 saves entering the shootout.