Slovakia upsets Lundqvist, Sweden to advance to semis

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Nicklas Lidstrom had the final shot and the final chance to extend his Olympic career. Jaroslav Halak refused to give, sending Slovakia into uncharted territory in the Olympics.

Tomas Kopecky scored the decisive goal in the third period and Slovakia hung on for a 4-3 win to send defending Olympic champion Sweden home Wednesday night, advancing to the semifinals for the first time.

“It’s the biggest achievement so far in the short history of Slovak Republic,” forward Miroslav Satan said. “We [are] definitely going to enjoy it for a while and then focus on the next game.”

That one will be a doozy.

Slovakia will face the host Canadians on Friday night in a semifinal for a spot in the gold-medal game.

“Canada is probably the best team in this tournament,” Satan said. “We’re going to be the underdog as we were today, so we have nothing to lose.”

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 Olympics and have looked like a medal contender at the Vancouver Games since beating Russia in a shootout in the preliminary round.

“We had to chase them the whole game,” said Peter Forsberg, who has played his final Olympic game for Sweden. “It’s a very quiet dressing room right now. A lot of guys are disappointed.”

Lidstrom’s goodbye was a desperate blast with 3 seconds remaining from atop the left faceoff circle. He said he was aiming for the glove side, but Halak read the shot, slid his body over and blocked Sweden’s final chance with his chest.

Halak, who had 26 saves, did more than that. He ended an era of Swedish hockey. Lidstrom just drifted toward his bench, bent over at the waist and skated around aimlessly while the Slovaks celebrated their biggest hockey win as a nation.

“A big disappointment,” Lidstrom said, dropping his head. “A huge disappointment.”

The four-time Stanley Cup winner with the Detroit Red Wings scored the gold-medal winning goal against rival Finland four years ago in Turin. He had talked last week about becoming the first two-time Olympic champion since all the world’s best players were able to compete.

Instead, Halak put a stop to that.

Sweden’s Henrik Lundqvist clearly had an off game, with only one save in the pivotal second period when the Slovaks scored on three straight shots.

Pavol Demitra scored one of those three goals, as well as a go-ahead goal, slapping a shot that Lundqvist didn’t see because his view was obstructed, after Marian Gaborik and Andrej Sekera broke open a scoreless game by scoring in a 37-second span midway through the second period.

Patric Hornqvist scored on a nifty, no-look pass from Forsberg and Henrik Zetterberg scored — off Slovak defenseman Milan Jurcina — in another 37-second span of the second to tie it.

Daniel Alfredsson scored 38 seconds after Kopecky to pull Sweden within a goal, but they couldn’t generate enough offense with an aging team that welcomed back 13 players from the 2006 Olympics.

“It’s tough the way we lost,” Forsberg said. “This is not the way we wanted it to end.”