Slovenia Tops Slovakia 3-2 in Shootout at Olympics

Gasper Kroselj stopped four of the five shots he faced in a shootout and Ziga Jeglic's slap shot high into the net was the difference Saturday night as Slovenia beat Slovakia 3-2 in preliminary-round play at the Olympics.

Slovenia opened the scoring when Blaz Gregorc whistled a shot from the blue line past Branislav Konrad just one minute into the second period. Anze Kuralt added another at 15:44, tipping in a pass from Jan Mursak as he was surrounded by three Slovakia players.

Slovakia answered at 4:17 when Milos Bubela tipped a slap shot past Kroselj as he stood in the crease. Marcel Hascak tied things up at 14:04 of the third period, ripped a slap shot over the glove of Kroselj, who then had to scramble late in the game to turn away several scoring chances during a Slovakia power play with only a few minutes left.

After the scoreless overtime, Rok Ticar feinted left and slid a slow shot past Konrad to give Slovenia a 1-0 lead in the shootout. Ladislav Nagy evened things up, but Andrej Kudrna, Peter Olvecky, Martin Bakos and Hascak all missed or were stopped by Kroselj before Jeglic's winner.

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