--- title: The Internet Can't Believe U.S. Hockey Lost to Slovenia description: The U.S. Olympic hockey team fell on Wednesday to Slovenia in the opening round of play in PyeongChang, to the surprise of many fans. canonical: https://time.com/5157946/us-hockey-slovenia/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-14T17:39:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:38.636Z og:title: The Internet Can't Believe U.S. Hockey Lost to Slovenia og:description: The U.S. men's team surprised viewers by falling to the Slovenian squad og:url: https://time.com/5157946/us-hockey-slovenia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte91b00e65edc37c3/6989278597cdffa0d46b44ff/us-hockey-olympics-slovenia.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ice Hockey - Winter Olympics Day 5 - United States v Slovenia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Can't Believe U.S. Hockey Lost to Slovenia twitter:description: The U.S. men's team surprised viewers by falling to the Slovenian squad twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte91b00e65edc37c3/6989278597cdffa0d46b44ff/us-hockey-olympics-slovenia.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Can't Believe the U.S. Men's Hockey Team Just Lost to Slovenia  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 14, 2018 5:39 PM UTC  Jan Mursak #39 of Slovenia scores a game winning goal against Ryan Zapolski #30 of the United States in overtime of the Men's Ice Hockey Preliminary Round Group B game on day five of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics at Kwandong Hockey Centre on February 14, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea. Jan Mursak #39 of Slovenia scores a game winning goal against Ryan Zapolski #30 of the United States in overtime of the Men's Ice Hockey Preliminary Round Group B game on day five of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics at Kwandong Hockey Centre on February 14, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea.Ronald Martinez—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 14, 2018 5:39 PM UTC While Team USA [has been cleaning up](http://time.com/5155334/usa-womens-hockey-beats-russia/) at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics this year, handily scooping up medals in snowboarding, ice skating and luge, men’s hockey turned out to be a weak spot on Wednesday after the U.S. team fell to Slovenia in overtime of the preliminary round of Group B play. Americans are pretty good at hockey: we are part of a league that’s widely considered the best in the world, after all. But this year, the [NHL declined to allow](http://time.com/4947041/nhl-players-2018-winter-olympics/) its players to participate in the Winter Olympic Games, citing concerns about having to put the league on hold for three weeks. Instead, the U.S. men’s team in South Korea [is made up of a mix](http://time.com/5084226/team-usa-hockey-teams-2018-olympics/) of college athletes, Europe-based players and those who play for other leagues, with only one member of the squad with NHL experience. The ban has also impacted many other countries whose star players compete for NHL teams as well. So going into competition, fans were worried that the U.S. might not live up to its mighty record in this event. Turns out those fears could be well-founded, as the U.S. went down to the Slovenian team 3-2 at the Kwandong Hockey Centre in Gangneung in a dramatic overtime finish. This especially shocked viewers given the small pool of talent in Slovenia versus that of the U.S., based on population alone. Next up, the U.S. men face off against Slovakia while Slovenia takes on the Olympic Athletes from Russia. And if these results are anything to go by, there will be many more unpredictable finishes in this Olympics’ hockey play to come. It’s not all bad news on the hockey front, though: the U.S. women’s team handily beat Russia in an opening round, [even setting an Olympic record.](http://time.com/5155334/usa-womens-hockey-beats-russia/) > [](https://twitter.com/PierreVLeBrun/status/963782525821730816) > [](https://twitter.com/MrJacobCharles/status/963803917321625601) > [](https://twitter.com/Miles%5FMcQuinn/status/963803574512824320) > [](https://twitter.com/pillar32/status/963784917615292416) > [](https://twitter.com/NFattey/status/963802780124221441) > [](https://twitter.com/i%5Fam%5Fwhite%5Frice/status/963801895142871040) > [](https://twitter.com/Hawkslax19/status/963803993997758465) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5157946/us-hockey-slovenia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5157946/us-hockey-slovenia/"},"headline":"The Internet Can't Believe the U.S. Men's Hockey Team Just Lost to Slovenia","datePublished":"2018-02-14T17:39:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:38.636Z","description":"At least the women's team won","url":"https://time.com/5157946/us-hockey-slovenia/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Winter Olympics","2018 Pyeongchang Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte91b00e65edc37c3/6989278597cdffa0d46b44ff/us-hockey-olympics-slovenia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte91b00e65edc37c3/6989278597cdffa0d46b44ff/us-hockey-olympics-slovenia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ice Hockey - Winter Olympics Day 5 - United States v Slovenia","caption":"Ice Hockey - Winter Olympics Day 5 - United States v Slovenia","creditText":"Ronald Martinez—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5157946/us-hockey-slovenia/","name":"The Internet Can't Believe the U.S. Men's Hockey Team Just Lost to Slovenia"}}]}] ```