Slovakia stuns US, Americans and Canadians out of Olympics

By STEPHEN WHYNO
AP Hockey Writer

BEIJING (AP) — The United States is out of the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympics in stunning fashion after blowing a late lead. Slovakia beat the U.S. 3-2 in a shootout to knock the top-seeded Americans out in the quarterfinals. Canada exited hours after the U.S. with a 2-0 loss to Sweden. It’s the first Olympic semifinals without the U.S. and Canada since 2006. The U.S. led for almost half the game before the tying goal when Slovakia pulled its goaltender for an extra attacker to play 6-on-5. Slovakia forward Juraj Slafkovsky scored his tournament-leading fifth goal of the tournament. The Russians and Finland also moved on to the semifinals.