Olympics men’s hockey: USA advances with 5-1 win over Slovakia

Team USA advances to the semifinals of the Olympics men’s hockey tournament with a 5-1 victory over Slovakia

After a rather disappointing showing group play, Team USA put together their best performance of the Olympics men’s hockey tournament in a 5-1 victory over Slovakia.

USA came out with an early jump, but it Slovakia weathered the push and took over in the second half of the first period. Slovakia outshot USA 9-7 in a scoreless first period. However, USA had the better scoring chances. Their best chance came on a shot by Chris Bourque that caught the outside of the post.

It took Ryan Donato 1:36 to break the tie in the second period. Donato hit Troy Terry on a breakaway pass, but Terry’s move was stopped by goaltender Jan Laco, who sprawled out to make the save. The puck, and Laco’s stick, went to the end boards. The puck squirted out front and right to Donato, who made no mistake in putting it past a stickless Laco.

Less than 30 seconds later, Ladislav Nagy was called for interference on USA goalie Ryan Zapolski. At the same time, Michal Cajkovsky was assessed a match penalty for catching Donato up high with an elbow. Donato, bleeding, skated to the bench and didn’t miss a shift. Zapolski got an extended look by the trainers, but remained in the game.

This setup a 5-on-3 for two minutes. It took James Wisniewski 18 seconds to blast a one-timer from the circles past Laco to give USA a 2-0 lead. It was two goals in 44 seconds for the Americans.

Mark Arcobello would make it 3-0 at 13:30 in the second period, finishing off a nice behind the net feed from Troy Terry.

Peter Ceresnak would cut the lead to 3-1 on the power play at the end of the second.

USA were up two goals in the third against Slovenia in their opening game of group play and lost that game 3-2 in overtime. They sat back in that contest, allowing Slovenia to find the equalizer. Learning from their mistakes, USA outshot Slovakia 15-3 in the final frame, adding two more goals in the process. Garrett Roe scored the first on a pretty passing play setup by Broc Little and Brian O’Neill. Donato scored his second of the game, this time on the power play to make it 5-1.

Zapolski finished with 22 saves. Not only did it keep USA’s medal dreams alive, but it gave them a lot of momentum heading into their quarterfinal showdown with Czech Republic.

Highlights

What’s Next?

Slovakia heads home as the first country out of the tournament. USA will meet Czech Republic with the winner moving on to the semifinals. That game will take place less at 10:10 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.