Gangwon 2024: United States beat Slovakia after penalty shootout drama in opening Youth Olympic men's ice hockey game
The United States were trailing 4-2 before the third and final period, where they came back to equalise and eventually win the penalty shootout in the men's ice hockey competition at the Winter Youth Olympic Games.
Ice Hockey
The United States men's ice hockey team opened their Gangwon 2024 Winter Olympic Games campaign with a hard fought victory over Slovakia on Saturday (27 January).
Following a dramatic ending, with a penalty shootout, the U.S. favourties secured a 5-4 result.
The first period started as planned for Team USA, when Zane Torre scored just one minute and 37 seconds into the first men's game of these Youth Olympics.
The Slovakians fought back to equalise and began to dominate. The USA briefly regained the lead at 2-1 before Slovakia scored three unanswered, Kristian Reznicak put the underdogs into a 4-2 lead in the third, with his second goal of the match.
Team USA were pushing hard to get back on level score. With 54 seconds left on the clock Torre scored the equalising goal to make it 4-4 and send the game into a penalty shootout.
In the shootout, Slovakia failed to get pass Xavier Wendt in goal, while the favourites of Team USA held their nerves to net three times and claim the win.
"We came down from the second period 4-2, and we got to just use our growth mindset to come back and win the match," Parker Trottier told Olympics.com.
"We knew we were gonna have adversity in this tournament. I think our teamwork, our hard work, and how tight we are as a group, got us the win," Zane Torre added.
The result means that the United States lead Group A on two points - one more than Slovakia.
Czechia are also in Group A, where the top two teams advance to the semi-finals.
Team USA will face Czechia next on Monday 29 January.