Slovaks beat Swedes to face Canada in semis
Last Updated: Thursday, February 25, 2010 | 4:58 AM ET
The Associated Press
Slovakia's Andrej Sekera, left, celebrates with Richard Zednik after Sekera scored against Sweden during the second period of Wednesday's men's quarter-final game. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)Slovakia knocked defending Olympic champion Sweden out of the Olympic men's hockey tournament Wednesday night with a 4-3 victory in the quarter-finals.
Marian Gaborik, Andrej Sekera, Pavol Demitra and Tomas Kopecky scored for the Slovaks, whose superior team speed kept the Swedes at bay.
"It's the biggest achievement so far in the short history of Slovak Republic," Slovak forward Miroslav Satan said. "We are definitely going to enjoy it for a while and then focus on the next game."
Sweden's Nicklas Lidstrom, who scored the winning goal in the championship game at the Torino Olympics, had his last shot stopped by Jaroslav Halak as time expired.
The Slovaks will play Canada on Friday night in the semifinals for a spot in the gold-medal game. Even with a loss, Slovakia will have its best finish since competing at the Olympics for the first time in 1994.
The Slovaks finished fifth at the 2006 Games and have looked like medal contenders in Vancouver since their shootout win over Russia in group play.
Entering the game, Sweden's Henrik Lundqvist had not allowed a goal in Vancouver, but he let three straight pucks get past him in the second period. He finished with just 10 saves.
Lundqvist did have an excuse when Gaborik scored midway through the second period. The goaltender said a Slovak player kicked his stick away, forcing him to use a defenceman's stick instead.
"It should have been a call, but I'm not going to whine about it now," Lundqvist said. "It's frustrating."
Bartecko injured
Halak made 26 saves for Slovakia, which played without forward Lubos Bartecko, who suffered a concussion in Tuesday night's win over Norway. He might return to play against Canada.
"There is a chance, but we will respect the decisions of our doctors," Slovak coach Jan Filc said.
Gaborik and Sekera broke open a scoreless game by scoring in a 37-second span midway through the second period, but the Swedes responded with their own pair of goals, also in a 37-second span, from Patric Hornqvist and Henrik Zetterberg.
Demitra then scored the goal late in the second period that gave Slovakia the lead for good, slapping a shot that Lundqvist didn't see because the goalie's view was obstructed. Kopecky made the score 4-2 by scoring off a rebound in the third period.
Daniel Alfredsson scored 38 seconds later to pull Sweden within a goal, but the Swedes fell short with an aging team that welcomed back 13 players from the 2006 Olympics. The game marked the end of an era for Sweden, which won't have Lidstrom or Peter Forsberg or coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson back for the Games in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
Lidstrom and Forsberg acknowledged this will be their final Olympics. The Swedish Ice Hockey Association announced last month that Gustafsson would quit after the Vancouver Games and the coming world championships in Germany, to be replaced on June 1 by Par Marts.
"It's tough the way we lost," Forsberg said. "This is not the way we wanted it to end."
