Slovakia ousts defending champs in hockey

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Pavol Demitra scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period Wednesday and Slovakia upset defending champion Sweden in the Olympic quarterfinals 4-3.

Slovakia reached the semifinals for the first time and will meet Canada Friday with a berth in the gold medal game at stake. The other semifinal will send the United States against Finland.

Despite taking just 14 shots on goal, Slovakia eliminated a team that had won the title in two of the last four Olympics.

Goals by Marian Gaborik and Andrej Sekera 37 seconds apart during the opening half of the second period gave Slovakia a 2-0 lead, but Sweden tied it on scores from Patric Hornqvist and Henrik Zetterberg that also were separated by only 37 seconds.

Sweden's Tobias Enstrom went to the penalty box for tripping with 1:44 to go in the second period and Demitra, who plays his NHL hockey for the Vancouver Canucks, scored 44 seconds later.

Tomas Kopecky gave Slovakia a two-goal lead 9:01 into the third period, a score that became the game-winner when Daniel Alfredsson quickly got one back for Sweden.

Jaroslav Halak made 26 saves in the victory. Henrik Lundqvist took the loss, having recorded shutouts in his two starts in group play.

The United States-Finland semifinal will begin at 12 p.m. local time Friday. Canada and Slovakia will meet at 6:30.

The four teams left to battle for the gold medal finished first (United States), fourth (Finland), sixth (Canada) and seventh (Slovakia) in the preliminary phase of the tournament.