Americans go 0-for-5 in shootout, fall to Slovakia in men's Olympic hockey quarterfinals

Slovakia stunned Team USA in their Olympic men's ice hockey quarterfinal, tying the game in the final minute of regulation and then eliminating the tournament's top seed in a shootout on Wednesday in Beijing.

Former Boston Bruins winger Peter Cehlarik scored the lone goal of the shootout on Slovakia's fourth attempt, beating U.S. goalie Strauss Mann (34 saves). The U.S. was unsuccessful on all five shots against Slovakia goalie Patrik Rybar (33 saves), including the final attempt by captain Andy Miele.

The U.S. men's ice hockey team leaves Beijing without a medal, making this three straight Olympics without one. Their last Winter Games hardware was the silver medal they won in Vancouver in 2010. They haven't won gold since the «Miracle on Ice» of 1980.

Team USA entered the third period with a 2-1 lead on goals by Nick Abruzzese (first period) and Sam Hentges (second period). They squandered a chance to increase their advantage with a 5-on-3 power play, the result of Rybar covering the puck outside of his goal crease for a delay of game penalty. The Americans didn't have a shot on net. They had another power play with less than five minutes to play and couldn't convert on that, either. For the game, they failed to score in 6:38 of power-play ice time.

That failure came back to haunt them. Slovakia's Marek Hrivik scored with 44 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 2, smacking the puck in on a deflected point shot with his goalie pulled. The Slovak bench celebrated and the game was headed to a 3-on-3 overtime and then, eventually, Slovakia's shootout win.

For the third straight game, the U.S. conceded the first goal of the game in the first period, this time a snipe from 17-year-old Slovakian phenom Juraj