The United States’ improbable, unbeaten run through the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament came to a devastating halt at the quarter-final stage on Wednesday with a 3-2 penalty shootout defeat to Slovakia.
The youngest US men’s Olympic team in decades appeared bound for the semi-finals after coming from behind for a third straight contest to lead 2-1 with under a minute remaining. But Slovakian captain Marek Hrivic scored a game-tying goal with 43.7 seconds left and Peter Cehlarik broke a stalemate in the decisive shootout that followed a scoreless overtime period.
