TURIN, Italy – After managing only two goals in two consecutive losses, the U.S. men’s hockey team broke out with three power-play tallies, yet still fell to Russia 5-4 in an Olympic game that mattered only in the confidence department.

The Americans (1-3-1), the fourthplace team in Group B, were already locked into a quarterfinal matchup today with Group A-winning Finland (5-0). As the no. 2 team in Group B, the Russians (4-1) will face Canada (3-2) in the quarterfinals.

After scoring only nine goals in four games, the Americans found their offense just as coach Peter Laviolette said his team would. This time, though, the Americans lacked the defense and goaltending they needed.

Brian Rolston, Brian Gionta, and Scott Gomez all scored man-advantage goals but the U.S. allowed as many goals to Russia as it did in the three previous games of the tournament.

“It’s almost like a playoff game where you are playing a great defensive team with great goaltending,” U.S. forward Doug Weight said. “If we don’t get a goal early – if something bad happens – we have to keep playing our game for 60 minutes.”

With the Americans scheduled to play again today in the medal round, goalie Rick DiPietro got the night off; Robert Esche started in his place.

Canada, which had lost back-to-back shutouts, got three first-period goals against the Czech Republic, then held on for a 3-2 win. The Czechs (2-3), last year’s world champions, finished a disappointing fourth in Group A and are to play Group B winner Slovakia (5-0) in the quarterfinals.

The day after Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky promised one goal would lead to another and another following consecutive shutout losses, he was right. Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis and Pronger scored in a 12-minute span of the first to give the defending gold medalists a big lead.

Finland remained undefeated in Olympic play with a 2-0 win over Germany (0-3-2) in which they rested first-string goaltender Antero Niittymaki and avoided injury. Niko Kapanen and Saku Koivu scored for Finland, who beat Canada, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy and the Germans by a combined score of 19-2 in preliminary play.

Also, Switzerland’s Ivo Ruthemann scored at 16:38 of the third period to pull out a 3-3 tie with host Italy (0-3-2). The Swiss (2-1-2) finished with six points in Group A and will face Sweden (3-2), whose coach caused a stir when he said his team might be better off losing to Slovakia and matching up with Switzerland in the quarterfinals.

Switzerland earned its quarterfinals berth with surprise wins over the Czechs and Canada, but are still considered weaker than either of those teams.

The 5-2 loss to Kazakhstan (1-4) by Latvia (0-4-1) put an end to that nation’s faint hopes of advancing to medal play. Latvia needed to win its last game, have the U.S. lose to Russia and make up a 16-goal differential