Olympic Journey Ends In Shock Defeat For Farmington Hockey Star

FARMINGTON, MN — The U.S. men's hockey team was knocked out of the 2022 Winter Olympics early Wednesday morning after a shootout loss to Slovakia.

That defeat ended dreams of triumph for the 25 non-NHL players who stepped up to represent the U.S., including Farmington native Drew Helleson.

Helleson played just over five minutes as the U.S. fell to a shock 3-2 loss to Slovakia in the quarterfinal round. The game started around 10:10 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday.

Slovakia's Juraj Slafkovský scored about 12 minutes into the first period to put his country up 1-0 over the U.S., who leveled just before the end of the period with a goal from Nick Abruzzese.
The U.S. took a 2-1 lead over Slovakia in the second period through a Sam Hentges goal, assisted by his St. Cloud University teammate Nick Perbix.

That lead stood for more than 30 minutes and the U.S. was on course for its first trip to the Olympic semifinals since 2014. But Slovakia's Marek Hrivik tied the game at 2-2 with just 43 seconds left after Slovakia pulled its goalie and played with an empty net.

After a scoreless overtime period, the game went to a best-of-five shootout, where Slovakia prevailed after scoring the only goal.

The first four Americans in the shootout failed to score, as did the first three Slovakians. Peter Cehlárik scored in the fourth round of the shootout to put Slovakia ahead, and the U.S. could not reply on its final shot, ending its Olympics at the quarterfinal stage.

David Quinn, head coach of the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, said after the game he "could not be prouder of this group and the way they came together and represented our country."

The U.S. men's hockey team called up NCAA stars and players from European leagues after the NHL opted out of sending its players to the Beijing Olympics due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Just one player on the squad boasted Olympic experience two weeks ago.

"Losing the game is a tough pill to swallow, but when you get to the quarterfinals of the Olympics, there are a lot of good teams and certainly credit (to) Slovakia," Quinn said. "This was a terrific group of players and they'll always be Olympians."