Slovakia Wins Wild One Against Russians

In a night of Olympic shootouts, the Russia vs. Slovakia battle did not disappoint. Down by one after the second period, Slovakia rallied back to force the overtime frame tied at 1 apiece. After sudden death solved nothing, a shootout was required to cap off the exciting matchup. Slovakia scored the game winner in the shootout off the stick of Pavol Demitra to upset the Russians.

It seemed Jaroslav Halak and the Slovakians battled themselves over the course of the night with two too many men calls, and bouncing pucks that Halak had difficulty maintaining. One significant factor to the game was the poor ice surface that made the puck seem like a tennis ball on a rocky surface.

It was a game that saw some difficulties on Russia sorting out their specialty teams. With all of Semin, Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Gonchar and Radulov on their top unit, none were willing to go to the net as they cluttered around each other looking to take the shot. Russia even had difficulty deciding who should be on the powerplay as a change on the fly left only three players on the ice waiting for others to step over the bench to join them.

Prior to one powerplay, Alexander Ovechkin stood from the side of the bench in order to decide which stick he’d like to use. After he couldn’t decide, he stepped onto the bench and looked for one himself. Content with his selection, he stepped back on the ice for the man advantage opportunity. Meanwhile, eleven other players and four officials waited for Alex the Gr8 to get settled for the powerplay opportunity. The wait lasted over a minute.

Russia opened the scoring with a goal by Aleksey Morozov and the KHL line five minutes into the second period. Russia then unleashed a flurry of shots as they attacked the Slovaks for the majority of the second period. Slovakia weathered the storm and regrouped for the third period.

Midway through the final frame, the Hossa brothers (Marian and Marcel) combined with Pavol Demitra to tie the game with a one-timer by Hossa from the slot. End to end pressure ensued for the remainder of the third period until both teams found themselves in sudden death overtime.

In the shootout, Jozef Stumpel opened the scoring with a sliding back hander on Bryzgalov. Ovechkin came back to tie it with a five hole goal on Halak. Three rounds and six shooters did not decide anything. It wasn’t until Pavol Demitra came in on his second attempt of the shootout and beat Bryzgalov short side on a toe drag flip shot in Round 8.

Slovakia earned the 2 points in the upset over Russia. Slovakia remains in the second seed in Group B, but it closes the gap on what many believed would be a runaway preliminary domination by Russia.

Halak made 36 saves and stopped 7 players in the shootout to earn the victory.

Micheal A. Aldred