Richard Winton
BBC Sport Scotland in Cortina

So Great Britain opt to blank the first end. Why would they do that?

Basically, your aim when you've got the hammer is to score at least two. So often, if you're not able to do that with your final stone, you are better 'blanking' the end so you can keep the hammer for the next end, and try and score more than one next time. Got it?

Image source, Getty Images

Canada have survived a massive fright to beat the Czech Republic 4-3 in overtime of their men's ice hockey quarter-final.

The Czechs led 3-2 with four minutes of regulation time remaining, but Nick Suzuki levelled the match to keep Canada's medal hopes alive.

And early in the overtime period, Mitch Marner's superb individual effort secured victory for the Canadians.

It would have been a big surprise if Canada had exited at this stage because of the participation of NHL players in the Olympics for the first time since 2014, which has massively strengthened their team for this year's Games.

Elsewhere, Slovakia are already through and Switzerland lead Finland 2-0 in the second period of their quarter-final, while the USA face Sweden at 20:10 GMT.

Richard Winton
BBC Sport Scotland in Cortina

The British rink have the hammer here, which is considered a good thing.

What is the hammer? The right to throw last in the first end which, in theory, enables you to dictate the play.

If you score points, you hand it over to your opponents. If you don't score, you keep it.

• Team GB's curlers kept their semi-final hopes with a double-win over the United States, with the men's side winning 9-2 and the women 8-7
• France secured their fifth biathlon gold of the Games, winning comfortably in the women's relay.
• Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States won the third alpine skiing gold of her career, topping the standings in the women's slalom
• China also enjoyed success in skiing's women's aerials, with Xu Mengtao taking gold and Shao Qi bronze

• China's Su Yiming clinched men's snowboard slopestyle gold, while Japan's Mari Fukada won the women's event
• China also enjoyed success in skiing's women's aerials, with Xu Mengtao taking gold
• Norway's Johannes Hosflot Klaebo won his 10th gold in men's skiing team relay, while the GB team finished fifth
• Sweden won gold in the women's skiing team relay, beating a late challenge from the Swiss team

Richard Winton
BBC Sport Scotland in Cortina

So here we are in the last-chance saloon again, for the third time today.

This time it is the GB women who need to win to preserve their slim chances of reaching Friday's semi-finals.

The good news? Opponents Japan are bottom of the standings with one win...

And we're back!

And we head straight to the curling rink, where Team GB's women face bottom-team Japan in a crucial fixture.

Only a win will do for the British quartet - they need to emerge victorious in their remaining two fixtures and hope other results go in their favour.

Lock in with us for the next few hours - we've also got two medal events in short-track speed skating from 19:05 GMT, while there's men's ice hockey quarter-finals ongoing.

We're going to pause our live text updates for a little while, but we will be back at 18:00 GMT as GB's women curlers bid for a second win of the day and two more gold medals will be dished out in short track speed skating.

It's quarter-final day in the men's ice hockey - Slovakia have already sealed their place in the last four with a 6-2 victory over Germany earlier today.

But there are three more matches to come and you can watch the first of them on this page:

• Canada v Czech Republic (15:40 GMT)
• Finland v Switzerland (17:10)
• USA v Sweden (20:10)

Image source, Getty Images

Here's what is coming up later today.

• 18:05-20:00: Women's curling - including Team GB v Japan
• 19:15-21:00: Short track speed skating - women's 3,000m relay
• 20:32-21:00: Short track speed skating - men's 500m

Plus there's men's ice hockey quarter-finals throughout the day, with Canada v Czech Republic about to start.

• Team GB's curlers kept their semi-final hopes with a double-win over the United States, with the men's side winning 9-2 and the women 8-7
• France secured their fifth biathlon gold of the Games, winning comfortably in the women's relay.
• Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States won the third alpine skiing gold of her career, topping the standings in the women's slalom
• China also enjoyed success in skiing's women's aerials, with Xu Mengtao taking gold and Shao Qi bronze
• China's Su Yiming clinched men's snowboard slopestyle gold, while Japan's Mari Fukada won the women's event
• China also enjoyed success in skiing's women's aerials, with Xu Mengtao taking gold
• Norway's Johannes Hosflot Klaebo won his 10th gold in men's skiing team relay, while the GB team finished fifth
• Sweden won gold in the women's skiing team relay, beating a late challenge from the Swiss team

Richard Winton
BBC Sport Scotland in Cortina

Barbara in Hull is an expat Scot and wonders how she can watch more curling year round?

Well Barbara, the BBC do stream selected matches from major tournaments on the BBC Sport website and app and the iPlayer.

And Peter in Birmingham has asked if it is ever likely that a non-Scot will represent Team GB at curling?

There's no reason it shouldn't happen, Peter. The national academy is in Stirling and the sport is more prevalent in Scotland, certainly, but there are three English curlers in the GB squad for the forthcoming Winter Paralympics.

Vicky Wright
Olympic gold medallist curler on BBC Two

They were very unlucky with their first game against Italy, when they lost a four out of nowhere in the first end. Since then, a slip-up against Norway, a good game against Switzerland where they came out on the wrong side, and thankfully they won today.

It's hard, because you know them, and you know they are always on top form. You don't tend to see them struggling as much as this because they are riding high, making shots. You can see they are trying out there as well. But that was a really solid performance today.

Image source, PA Media

Bruce Mouat spoke to BBC Sport after a dominant performance against the United States: "We played really well. It was a bit of a scary first end, but we turned the momentum straight away and we forced them into some tricky shots. It was nice.

"[Waiting for other results] is a horrible position to be in. Having to watch other games and hope they go our way is not the position we wanted to be in but so far so good. We need tomorrow to be the same. We will keep our fingers and our toes crossed and see what happens."

On the support back home: "We have had so many messages, and we've got so many family and friends out here and they are really enjoying themselves. We are hopeful that we have a few more games to inspire people to play curling and sport in general."

Hammy McMillan added: "We had a few defeats in a row and we knew what we had to do today. We played our best at a relaxed intensity. We had that conversation again last night, that is what makes us tick. We controlled the game and forced them into some tough shots.

"If results go our way tomorrow, it's a new competition.That is part one finished, forget about it. Two games to go."

Richard Winton
BBC Sport Scotland in Cortina

Image source, PA Media

This afternoon could not have gone much better for Team GB.

After their win, and Italy losing, Norway have also now lost to the undefeated Switzerland.

So what does that mean? Should either Italy lose to Switzerland or Norway to Canada on Thursday (08:05 GMT), Bruce Mouat's rink would be in the semi-finals later in the day.

Here's the top of the leaderboard at the end of the women's slopestyle final:

1. Mari Fukada (Japan) 87.83

2. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (New Zealand) 87.48

3. Kokomo Murase (Japan) 85.80

4. Annika Morgan (Germany) 78.78

5. Laurie Blouin (Canada) 68.60

6. Jess Perlmutter (USA) 68.18

Ed Leigh
Snowboarding and freestyle skiing commentator on BBC iPlayer

Mari Fukada takes a gold medal at her first Olympics. A truly phenomenal talent.

There is going to be so much around the judges' decisions here.

There are so many scores we have not been able to make sense of.

Richard Winton
BBC Sport Scotland in Cortina

That's another part of the equation done for Team GB - Italy have been beaten by Canada.

The hosts now need to overcome unbeaten Switzerland on Thursday morning to match the record of Bruce Mouat's rink.

That means GB now can't be officially knocked out today.

Hanna Oeberg brings defending champions Sweden over the line in second, 51.3 seconds behind the French team, while Norway take bronze.

Here's the top five in the standings:

1. France - 1:10:22.7
2. Sweden - 1:11:14.0
3. Norway - 1:11:30.3
4. Germany - 1:11:51.8
5. Czech Republic - 1:12:30.2

Ed Leigh
Snowboarding and freestyle skiing commentator on BBC iPlayer

Image source, Getty Images

A huge back 10. The execution is perfect, but can the scores match up for Zoi Sadowski-Synnott? I can't see this going gold for Sadowski-Synnott.