Olympia 2018: Ice hockey: USA failes in quarter-finals

The two-time Olympic champion USA has already retired from the quarter-finals with second-league defender James Wisniewski of the Kassel Huskies at the winter games in Pyeongchang. The Americans lost to the twelve-time World Champion Czech Republic 2-3 (1-1,1-1,0-0,0-0,0-0,0-1) after penalty shooting and missed the round of the last four for the first time in twelve years.

“I would have liked to have played a bigger role,”said Wisniewski, who was only used in the US team for power play:”I have more to give than I gave. That I didn’t play five against five at five was stupid.”

The long-time NHL professional will neither return to the second division team Kassel nor to the DEL club Adler Mannheim:”I’m going home, then I’ll wait and see what happens” The 33-year-old, who scored a goal in Pyeongchang and prepared another goal, hopes for a return to the NHL.

The Czechs, 1998 Olympic gold medallist, will meet either record world champion Russia or underdog Norway on Friday. They are not afraid of the tournament’s favourites, who compete as Olympic athletes from Russia:”We can beat them, why not?”said defender Vojtech Mozik.

With his fifth goal in the tournament, 21 year old college player Ryan Donato put the USA in the lead (7th). Jan Kolar (16th) and Thomas Kundratek (29th) turned the game in favour of the Czechs. Jim Slater (31st) forced the extension. Petr Koukal transformed the decisive penalty.