Slovakia Upsets Projected Olympic Champions Russia on Opening Day

The opening day of men's hockey action at the 2018 Olympics was full of surprises, with Slovakia defeating Russia with a shocking 3-2 victory on Wednesday.

The Russians may have surrendered a two-goal lead by the end of the opening period, but they had a strong start to kick off their tournament regardless.  At 2:54, Vladislav Gavrikov turned a Slava Voynov pass into a nice wrist shot goal past the blocker of Branislav Konrad, scoring his first Olympic goal to give his country an advantage early.

Two minutes later, his team doubled their lead. This time, Kirill Kaprizov, one of Russia's best players leading up to the tournament in exhibition contests, after redirecting a shot from Nikita Gusev, surviving a review to earn his first goal of the tournament.

At 16:05, the Slovaks struck pack. Peter Olvecky would somehow beat Vasily Koshechkin to make it 2-1. Skating down the wing on the rush, Olvecky sent a weak shot under Koshechkin's blocker, putting Slovakia on the board for the first time.

Before the opening frame came to a close, they scored again. This time, Martin Bakos would get credit for an eerily similar goal a minute later when he beat Koshechkin on the rush glove side, tying the game up at two to end the opening stanza.

The Russians seemed like the team to beat with all their top end skill, but Slovakia wasn't too impressed with that notion. At 8:30 in the third, Peter Ceresnak's power-play goal from the high slot proved to be the goal that would give Slovakia the victory, shocking the heavily-favoured Russian team by a score of 3-2 on Wednesday.

The Slovaks will look to go 2-0 against the United States on Friday, a team that blew a 2-0 advantage to lose to Slovenia on Wednesday. Russia will look to bounce back against the Slovenians, a team that, theory, they have a major advantage over.

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