VANCOUVER, Feb 25, 2010 (AFP) - Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who had not given up a goal at the Vancouver Olympics, never saw the shots that gave Slovakia a 4-3 quarter-final victory Wednesday to oust the defending champions.
Lundqvist, a National Hockey League star for the New York Rangers who had earlier blanked Finland and Belarus, allowed Slovakia four goals on only 15 shots as Slovakia advanced to a Friday date with Canada, which defeated Russia.
"I felt good in the first period then I hardly saw the puck," Lundqvist said. "I just saw it in the net. It was a hard game for me."
It was also a hard way to end an era.
After an unbeaten run through the preliminary round, the loss marked the last Olympic game for half a dozen Swedish stars, including mainstays Daniel Alfredsson, Peter Forsberg and Nicklas Lidstrom.
"It's a huge disappointment," Swedish captain Lidstrom said. "We're not going to be part of the Olympics as players again. It's tough not going out in the finals."
Slovakia's Michal Handzus screened "King Henrik" on goals by Pavol Demitra and Martin Gaborik, Lundqvist's Rangers teammate who shares fourth among NHL goal scorers with 35 this season.
"We didn't have many chances but we made the most of the chances we had," Gaborik said.
"To be in front of Henrik is huge. Everyone contributed. We're going to have to do the same thing against Canada."
The Slovakians did the same thing to Sweden that was done to them in 2006, when they ran through the Turin Olympic preliminaries unbeaten only to lose to the Czech Republic in the first knockout round.
Now Slovakia could claim their first Olympic hockey medal.
"This is probably our best chance to do some damage. So far, so good," said Slovak goaltender Jaroslav Halak. "That was probably our biggest challenge."
Sweden will not become the first team since the 1994 and 1998 Soviet Union squads to claim back-to-back Olympic men's hockey gold medals, although the same Soviet talent pool also won as the Unified Team in 1992.
Slovakia took a 3-2 lead with 48 seconds remaining in the second period on Demitra's goal.
Tomas Kopecky tapped in a rebound to put Slovakia ahead 4-2 with 10:59 remaining but just 38 seconds later, Daniel Alfredsson answered for Sweden, which then pressed to the finish but could not net the equalizer.
"We believed in ourselves," Slovak forward Richard Zednik said. "We knew we could do it."
Gaborik and Sekera scored 37 seconds apart early in the second period but the Swedes answered with two goals of their own that were 37 seconds apart from Patric Hornqvist and Henrik Zetterberg.
Slovakia played without forward Lubos Bartecko, still recovering from a concussion suffered in Tuesday's 4-3 first-round playoff victory over Norway.
