USA runs over Slovakia

In a decisive game about the last quarter final spot of Group B you would expect some drama and excitement. But there was none at all, USA was very determined not to miss the playoff round for the second year in a row and exploded with eight goals scored in the first half of the game.

Cole Bardreau opened the scoring after four minutes but Matus Matis tied it just 14 seconds later keeping some excitement at least for the first minutes of the game. Than it was all about USA. Jake McCabe made it 2-1 with a backhand shot and at 9:00 John Gaudreau made it 3-1. At this point Slovakia decided to pull their Goalie Nagy out of the game and replaced him with Patrik Romancik.

That goalie change didn't help much as USA made it 4-1 and 5-1 by Mike Reilly and Jacob Trouba. The Slovaks got a small chance to get back into the game when Shayne Gotsisbehere was sent off the ice with a game misconduct for slashing giving Slovakia a five minute power play. The Slovaks scored on it, but only once by Richard Mraz and that wasn't enough to keep any thrill in the game.

At the start of the second period everything just went on for USA that was full of self confidence after finally getting their goal scoring going after some problems with it against Russia and Canada and after half the game the score was 8-2.

After that the goal scoring slow downed and both teams scored one goal each in the third period with Matis scoring his second goal of the game. John Gaudreau also scored twice for the Americans.

USA will now move into the quarter finals with some self confidence while the Slovak head into the relegation round with two points from the overtime win versus Germany.

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