Americans down Slovaks in OT

Both teams went into the game with the pedal on the floor, which resulted in a pair of early penalties, one for each contender. The Stars and Stripes were closer into opening the scoring sheet during their power play, however, Hayes’s shot was caught by Latkoczy into his glove. But the American centre got his payback three minutes later, after a very well executed combination in the offensive zone, Avery Hayes was left absolutely forgotten just in front of the crease. This had an obvious result – a quick pass right to the blade followed by an unstoppable one-timer. The USA could not be stopped even when shorthanded, as Mark Estapa went on a trip to the opposing goalie, and after a chaotic situation in the blue paint put the puck in the net. However, the referee had already blown his whistle, therefore the goal did not stand.

Slovakia was able to come back into the game just after the half of the first period, but they bounced the momentum brilliantly. Samuel Rehak put all of his power into his feet which came in really handy as he flew through the ice, and his wrister from the right circle beat the American goalie on the blocker side. Nevertheless, the Slovak lead did not last long. After an unsuccessful 4-on-2 break, the hosts forgot Ryan Beck by the left post, who received a perfect past from Noah Ellis and had an easy job. Less than 30 seconds before the green light went on, Jan Lasak could have equalized once again, but Louden Hogg stretched beyond what is humanly possible and stopped the puck right at the goal line.

The Slovaks did not start the second period as they wanted to. Just a minute after the opening faceoff they committed a foul, but were able to survive those two minutes of shorthanded play, and at full strength started to play significantly better. Nevertheless, the blue-shirted players were not having too much trouble with keeping their opponent far from tying the game up. In the 26th minute, the Americans had a chance to double their lead when Jack Williams went one-on-one against Latkoczy. However, the Slovak goaltender did not fall for Williams’ forehand drag and extended his left pad with the speed of a bullet.

Despite this American chance, the hosts kept the game mostly in their hands as they were offensive-wise the better team. But the United States preferred quality over quantity. Mark Estapa was only few inches from scoring while shorthanded, this time his shot from a toe drag ended up only hitting the post. Another denial left the Americans furious and so hungry for breaking the bad luck, yet they did not know what was to come, three minutes before the period ended, they were left speechless when they fell victims to the rules of hockey once again. This time, they put the puck in the net while standing in the opponent goalie’s crease, therefore their goal did not stand for the second time already. And in the dying seconds, the visitors had to overcome another hit when Jan Lasak sky-rocketed through the rink and scored with a top-class wrister which flew in just by the left post.

Despite conceding late into the previous period, the USA started the last period a lot better, especially thanks to an early power-play. The North Americans locked the game in front of the Slovak goal for a long time and did not let their opponents leave their defensive zone. However, all this pressure could not turn coal into diamonds, the closest call of the first minutes was the chance of Avery Hayes six minutes after the opening face-off when he missed the net from a short distance. The United States were really experiencing all the bad luck they possibly could while Simon Latkoczy doing an extraordinary job for his team. The Slovak lifted all the fans up from their seats ten minutes before the end of the period when he unbelievably saved David Ma’s breakaway, and arguably got a good shot at the best save of the tournament.

Thanks to Latkoczy’s incredible support, Slovakia was able to get into the lead for the very first time in the game, although having a lot of luck. After a quick attempt followed by a rebound shot four of the Slovaks put their hand up in the air, however, the puck did not cross the line. The Americans tried to shoot it out of their zone, but they only put it right in front of the only non-celebrating player Martin Chromiak who took advantage of the whole situation and hit the wide-open net. But USA refused to give up, and only a minute later Ben Schoen tied the game up with a power-play goal. The pace of the game went rapidly up with many big chances happening, nevertheless, both goalies went mistake-less until the end of regulation.

The game went into overtime which could have ended after just 75 seconds, but unfortunately for the host country, Matej Kaslik came out short against a lightning-like reflexes of Hogg. The crucial point in the fight for the win came just under two minutes later when the Slovaks went short-handed. Their coach tried to break the momentum by using his time-out. However, the American power play proved to be top-class once again, this time, it was a great anticipation by Alex Gaffney, who skated to the goal immediately after taking a shot which lead into him getting to the rebound first, and deciding the whole game.