Slovakian Surprise

No, Slovakian Surprise isn't some sort of mystical delicious treat at an ethnic food establishment. It is instead a reference to what happened at the World Juniors on Friday as Slovakia upset the Americans 5-3, and will now move on to play Sweden in the semi's.

Slovak goalie Jaroslav Janus (ed. note: What an unfortunate last name) was on fire in between the pipes as he turned away 46 saves for the shocking win.

The United States outshot Slovakia 49-19 overall and Janus, the 19-year-old Erie Otters goalie who wasn't even selected in last June's NHL draft, made acrobatic saves to keep hold the lead against a relentless American attack. Me thinks that whole not being a prospect of an NHL club thing might be about to change.

Janus didn't do it all by himself as he got some big time support from his teammates. Slovakia scored three times on eight shots in the first period to put the Americans out of it early. Adam Bezak, Tomas Tatar and Jozef Molnar were the guys who scored on American goaltender Thomas McCollum of the OHL's Guelph Storm.

Richard Panik got one in the third and Tatar clinched the win with an empty-net goal with 2:14 left to play for Slovakia, which had not beaten the U.S. and A. in eight games at the tournament since 1998.

The winner of the Sweden vs. Slovakia semi will face the winner of the Canada vs. Czech Republic/Russia contest (game still going on as of post time) for the gold medal.

Meanwhile, American medal hopes have been flushed down the toilet as they will now play the loser of the Canadian quarterfinal in a battle for 5th place.

As a Canadian it's so hard for me to not want to rub this in and make jokes about how embarassing it is for the Americans to lose to Slovakia. Its just because I'm especially worried about karma coming back and hurting Team Canada. So for now I will privately look up Slovakia's national anthem and sing along. Oh yeah, I just remembered I don't speak Slovakian. Forget it then.