Slovakia stuns Americans
Late goal locks up shocking 3-2 victory
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Slovakian skaters swarmed goaltender Roman Durny to celebrate on the ice after upsetting the United States at the world junior championship on Thursday evening.
“It’s like winning a medal,” forward Marian Studenic said. “It’s a big win for us. We’re a small state and this is an honourable feeling.”
Samuel Bucek scored an unassisted goal with 2:08 remaining in the third period to give Slovakia a 3-2 victory over the defending gold medallist Americans.
“We never really thought we could beat a USA,” Bucek said. “But we’ve done that because we’ve been playing really with patience and we stick with the process and we did the right things on the ice.”
Filip Krivoski scored the other two goals for Slovakia, and Durny made 43 saves in his world-junior debut.
“Our goalie was outstanding,” Bucek said. “That was probably the main reason why we won.”
Casey Mittlestadt and Brady Tkachuk had goals for the U.S., which had won nine straight world junior games entering the night. The U.S. began its streak with the 2016 bronze medal game and went undefeated in winning the gold medal last year in Toronto. The previous American record was eight consecutive victories from 2004-05.
“You’ve got to realize the stage and realize that you’re playing in the world juniors,” Mittlestadt said. “You can’t take anyone for granted.”
In other preliminary-round games, Sweden beat the Czech Republic 3-1, Russia pulled away in the third period for a 5-2 win over Switzerland, and Finland downed Denmark 4-1.
Slovakia is 4-13-1 all-time against the U.S. in the world junior championship and had lost six straight preliminary-round meetings since last defeating the Americans in a 2009 quarter-final.
Bucek made an outstanding individual effort on the winning goal, manoeuvring around three defenders and circling behind the net before scoring on the rebound of a wraparound shot after Joseph Woll made the initial save.
Mittelstadt tied the game for U.S. with 3:11 left in the third period.
Krivosik gave Slovakia a 1-0 lead five minutes into the second period. He put Slovakia ahead 2-1 on a backhand with 4:45 left in the third period.
Ryan Poehling set up Tkachuk for the 1-1 goal on a 2-on-1 midway through the second period. Woll stopped 22 shots.
Earlier, Alex Nylander had a goal and an assist and defenceman Rasmus Dahlin, the expected top pick in the 2018 NHL draft, had two assists to lead Sweden.
Marcus Davidsson and Elias Pettersson also scored goals as Sweden improved to 2-0. Filip Gustavsson made 24 saves.
Artur Kayumov and Georgi Ivanov scored third-period goals to lead Russia over Switzerland. Kim Kostin and Vladislav Syomin each had a goal and an assist, Andrei Svechnikov had two assists and Vitali Abramov scored an empty-netter for the Russians, who are now 1-1.
Juuso Valimaki and Henri Jokiharju both had a goal and assist for Finland in its win over Denmark. Joona Koppanen and Aapeli Rasanen scored the other goals to give Finland a 2-0 lead in the first seven minutes. Miro Heiskanen had two assists and UkkoPekka Luukkonen needed to make just six saves. Finland also improved to 1-1.