The young U.S. men’s hockey team found themselves dumped out of the Winter Olympics after a disastrous quarterfinal defeat against Slovakia. Leading 2-1 and with just 44 seconds left on the clock, the Americans looked to be set for the medal round until a late goal from Marek Hrivik forced the game into 10 minutes of sudden death overtime, which ended goalless. Just one player scored in the ensuing shootout—Slovakia’s Peter Cehlarik—handing the Slovaks a 3-2 victory. A clean sweep through the preliminary matches had set Team USA up as top seed in Beijing and earned them a bye into the quarterfinals. The Slovaks got there the hard way, losing to Sweden and Finland and having to beat Germany to get through to the quarters.
