Slovakia stuns U.S. to reach last four at Beijing 2022 men's ice hockey event

BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Slovakia won a thrilling shootout victory over the United States to reach semifinals of the men's ice hockey event at Beijing 2022 here on Wednesday.

After winning Group A with a perfect record and earning the top seed in the knockout stage, the U.S. team headed into the game with two more days' rest. While Slovakia, the No. 8 seed, was playing back-to-back following an impressive 4-0 win over ninth-seeded Germany in Tuesday's play-in round.

The Slovakian team broke the deadlock at 11:45 of the first period, but the Americans struck back and scored twice at 19:14 and 28:56 apiece to overtake the lead.

With 44 seconds left in the third period, Slovakia's Marek Hrivik leveled the score at 2-2.

With both teams failing to score in extra time, the game headed into the deciding shootout, where Slovakia's Peter Cehlarik scored the lone goal in the fourth round to help the team clinch the semifinal spot.

"A tying goal is quite amazing. You pull the goalie (for another player). I'd never looked at odds or any of the metric stuff, but at best it's 20-80 to score. I've seen it done many times, but I've also seen lots of them go into the net," Slovakia head coach Craig Ramsay said.

"We played so hard and I think everybody felt we deserved it. Then it's a matter of making it happen, and the kids found a way," he added.

Elsewhere, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) defeated Denmark 3-1 in another quarterfinal.

Vadim Shipachyov of the ROC put the puck into the net at 13:01, but Denmark struck back with an equalizer at 22:57 in the second period. After that, the ROC dominated the game before triumphing 3-1.

In other two quarterfinals, Finland secured a 5-1 victory over Switzerland while Sweden prevailed 2-0 against Canada.

In the women's bronze medal game, Finland defeated Switzerland 4-0.