Some have described David Murdoch's final-stone winner which secured Britain victory over Norway earlier today as the "shot of the century".

The Scot showered his team-mates with praise, saying: "It is tremendous, so great for this team to get into the semi-final. Credit to the guys; the standard of our game was incredible.

"We weighed the last shot up; asked what the chances were to steal. It was a chance to win the game - we are not scared to win. The boys called it perfectly and we got it to go through.

"It has been a game a day for about nine days now. Sweden have qualified with a lot of wins and it will be a good game against them tomorrow."

Britain's men will play Sweden in the semi-finals at 15:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Goal! Finally. Alexander Radulov swoops around behind the Norwegian goal and flicks one past the scrambling keeper. The CSKA winger screams in delight, and possibly relief. The Bolshoy Ice Dome crowd follow suit.

Poor Rowan Cheshire. Not only has the GB halfpipe skier been temporarily left bloodied and bruised, she has been ruled out of the Olympics following Sunday's training crash which left her unconscious.

Image source, @Rowan_C_

The 18-year-old has withdrawn from the competition after medics said she needed more time to recover. "I am hugely disappointed," she says. "I felt as though I was coming into my best form of the season and had my tricks nailed.

"After experiencing what it is like to be at an Olympic Games I am determined to be back in four years' time and be up there competing for an Olympic medal."

I posted a picture on a social network site last week and it received three likes. So pleased was I by the overwhelming response that I treated myself to a cupcake for being so popular. The Russians use the social network site VKontakte, external (others are available) and on Monday a post which informed followers that Russia had won gold in the two-man bobsleigh received 33,000 likes. Puts everything into perspective really.

Brent Pope
BBC Sport ice hockey commentator

Image source, Reuters

"The Russians are failing to get offence from their defence. There has been so much focus on the Russian forwards and they're not getting any space at all as the Norwegians are smothering them like a blanket. Norway are exactly where they want to be after 20 minutes."

Russia's men continue to struggle up front and it's goalless in this play-off clash with Norway, despite seven shots on goal to the visitors' six. Russia have now played four periods in a row - five if you include the overtime against Slovakia - without scoring. The winners here go through to face Finland in the quarter-finals.

It's no surprise, really, that the Dutch have won more Olympic speed skating medals than any other country because they were the earliest pioneers of the sport, using frozen canals to skate from village to village as far back as the 13th century. The rest of us have been playing catch up ever since.

The men's 10,000m will start in about 10 minutes or so and many are predicting the speedsters in oranje to rule the roost once again. The Dutch have already claimed a record 16 speed skating medals - including clean sweeps in three of the first eight events - and this race features arguably their outstanding skater, Sven Kramer. The 27-year-old has already successfully defended his 5,000m title and will be hoping to make amends for his disqualification in this event four years ago where he was stripped of gold for incorrectly changing lanes.

Image source, James Woods

What do Winter Olympians do when they're not competing? Winter Olympians are always competing and this time they've been playing whiff-waff during their spare time. Great Britain slopestyler James Woods on Facebook, external: Table tennis tournament is over for Team GB! Billy Morgan and I here with our quarter-final final nemesis.

The big event of the day for the host nation is about to take place at the Bolshoy Ice Dome as Russia's men take on Norway in a play-off for a place in the ice hockey quarter-finals. Russia have not been overly impressive so far, hence the need for a play-off, but superstar Alex Ovechkin has been calming the nerves. "In principle, it makes no difference," he said of the extra game. "Each team is now in the peak of its form. Of course, we'd want to play one match less, but this way we'll stay in good form."

Just when we were starting to talk about Norway's demise their skiers win two gold medals in under an hour. Fabian Riessle, 23, finished behind the Norwegian pair to clinch bronze for Germany, while his team-mate Eric Frenzel, gold medallist in the normal hill, came home in 10th.

Image source, AP

Joergen Graabak leads coming into the home straight and the 22-year-old holds off his compatriot Magnus Moan to secure gold. It's a one-two for Norway.

Germany's team officials said on Monday that Eric Frenzel had a "50-50" chance of competing. He managed to get out of the bed for the ski jumping but he's probably now wishing he was wrapped up in front of a fire place with a hot drink.

It was Germany's Eric Frenzel who finished first in the ski jumping and he started the cross country section with an eight-second lead. The German has been one of the dominant figures in the sport in recent years, but he has dropped back to fifth and that bout of flu which hindered him in the build-up to this competition has obviously affected his stamina.

Here's a bit more information for you on the Nordic combined, after all we have all afternoon. The leader after the ski jumping is given the head start over his rivals, with a time handicap imposed on the other athletes based on how many points they finished behind in the ski jumping.

Nordic Combined is the only male-only Winter Olympic sport, mainly because the powers that be feared women would not be able to multi-task. The event consists of ski jumping and cross country skiing (in that order) and we're now into the cross country part of it. There's plenty of shouting and screaming from spectators on the sidelines as they watch the skiers go up a steep hill.

Image source, Getty Images

What do you mean there's no curling this afternoon? There's no curling this afternoon... I have no control of the schedule. Can I offer you the Nordic combined as compensation?

Coming up at 13:00 GMT is the men's 10,000m speed skating and we can expect the Dutch to dominate in that event. Then, from 13:45, there'll be flash, bang and plenty of walloping in the men's ski halfpipe qualification. Is that it? Heck, no, because at 15:15 Britons Paula Walker and Rebekah Wilson compete in the first run of the two-woman bobsleigh.

Hello there. Lawrence has left his desk with sweat dripping from his brow after those tense finishes in the biathlon and short track speed skating. Phew. That's not the end of it, though, because there's plenty of high-octane stuff to come.

Hazel Irvine's Winter Olympics breakfast show has finished on BBC Two, but we'll be back up and running on the same channel shortly with Jonathan Edwards. I'm also going to take a break and leave you in the very capable hands of Aimee Lewis.