U.S. men blow 2-goal lead, lose opener
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Five practices were supposed to prepare the Americans for this, and they knew at the second intermission that Slovenia was going to come out punching.
The preparation and the knowledge were not enough to fend off the fatigue as the United States squandered a two-goal lead and lost a 3-2 stunner in overtime Wednesday night in the Olympic opener for both teams. Slovenia captain Jan Mursak scored the tying goal with 1:37 left in regulation and the winner 38 seconds into overtime.
Long before that, the U.S. started letting the game slip away with mistakes all over the ice.
“We started turning the puck over in our zone, and they were getting chances and that led to some momentum for them,” said goaltender Ryan Zapolski, who allowed three goals on 25 shots. “We can’t give up those chances that we were giving up out of nothing there in the third. That really kills your momentum. And they scored a goal off one of them and from that point, we were kind of on our heels.”
Brian O’Neill and Jordan Greenway, who became the first African American hockey player for the U.S. at an Olympics, scored to build the 2-0 lead in a dominant showing, and the shots were 24-12 after two periods.
In the game because of goalie Gasper Kroselj, who stopped 34 of 36 shots, Slovenia came to life when Jan Urbas scored 5:37 into the third period. With fans chanting “SLO-VE-NI-A,” the perennial underdogs started to rally.
The U.S. at least picked up a point by getting to overtime. The Russians lost 3-2 in regulation to Slovakia across town at Gangneung Hockey Centre. After each team’s first game, Slovakia is atop Group B, followed by Slovenia, the U.S. and the Russians.
Women’s hockey: The joint Korean team finally scored its first goal of the Olympics, courtesy of two Americans in a 4-1 loss to Japan.
Randi Heesoo Griffin scored at 9:31 of the second period on the Koreans’ 33rd shot of the Olympics in their third game. She grew up in Cary, N.C., and her mother is from South Korea.
Griffin was set up for the goal by Marissa Brandt, who now lives in a suburb of the Twin Cities in Minnesota and who is playing for the country where she was born. Her birth name is Park Yoonjung, the name she uses on the back of her Korean team jersey.
Griffin’s goal led to an eruption from the fans filling Kwandong Hockey Center. Better yet, the goal cut the combined Korean team’s deficit to 2-1 against Japan — South Korea’s biggest Asian rival. Figure skating: Harley Windsor became the first indigenous Australian to compete at the Winter Olympics when the pairs skater joined teammate Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya on the ice for their short program.
Windsor and his Russianborn partner were among the first pairs on the ice, and their total of 61.55 points was just off their season’s best. The two were just shy of making the cut for Thursday’s free skate, though.
Windsor said he started to “feel a bit nervous” the night before competing, but he was happy with the performance. Both of the 21-year-old’s parents have Australian Aboriginal roots, and his mother, Josie, was cheering him from the stands. Briefly: Eric Frenzel of Germany won gold in Nordic combined. Akito Watabe of Japan earned silver and Lukas Klapfer of Austria took bronze. Frenzel erased 38 seconds after the ski-jumping stage and surged ahead of Watabe on the last uphill of the 10-kilometer crosscountry race to defend his title in the normal-hill event . ... Jorien ter Mors of the Netherlands won the women’s 1,000meter speedskating event. Japan earned both silver and bronze after Nao Kodaira finished second and Miho Takagi was third . ... Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt of Germany won their second consecutive Olympic doubles luge gold medal. Wendl and Arlt finished their two runs in 1 minute, 31.697 seconds. They’re the first German team to win two straight doubles golds since Hans Rinn and Norbert Hahn in 1976 and 1980. The Austrian team of Peter Penz and Georg Fischler was second, less than one-tenth of a second off the winning time. Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken of Germany took third.