US Males’s Hockey Crew Meets Slovakia in Quarterfinal Sport

The U.S. males’s hockey group, which rose to the Olympic match’s high seed after an ideal preliminary spherical, is on the ice for a quarterfinal sport in opposition to Slovakia.

The sport, at Nationwide Indoor Stadium, may show a potent check for the People: Slovakia beat Germany, 4-0, on Tuesday. The US managed to beat the identical German group by a single purpose on Sunday.

“We’re a extremely quick, expert group, so the extra that we are able to do to tighten up the smaller areas, like face-offs, these little issues are so vital that can assist you win the tight video games that we’ll be taking part in in,” Sean Farrell, an American ahead, mentioned in an interview on Tuesday. “We sort of obtained a style of that in opposition to Germany.”

The group is the youngest males’s hockey squad from america at a Video games since 1994 and consists of 15 present school gamers and a lone returning Olympian, Brian O’Neill.

Slovakia, which arrived in Beijing ranked No. 9 on the planet, has a roster that features Juraj Slafkovsky, a 17-year-old ahead who’s second in purpose scoring throughout these Olympics.

“They’ve a lot pace and quickness, and I believe it is going to be vital for us to have good sticks, sticks on pucks, win the battles when we’ve got to,” Craig Ramsay, Slovakia’s coach, mentioned of the People.

However, he added, the “pace and aggressiveness” which have characterised the Slovakian group could possibly be the important thing to unlocking the People — and another group within the match.

Slovakia misplaced to Finland and Sweden within the preliminary spherical.