Slovakia hands U.S. first loss at hockey worlds

The United States lost to Slovakia 4-2 on Monday for its first loss at the IIHF World Hockey Championship after opening with two victories.

Slovakia won for the first time in the tournament after two defeats. The Americans previously beat France and Canada.

Dominik Granak of Slovakia opened the scoring 47 seconds into the game. Less than 15 minutes later, Slovakia's Branko Radivojevic made it 2-0. Justin Faulk of the Carolina Hurricanes cut it to 2-1 at 15:41. Andrej Sekera struck at 19:54 to put Slovakia ahead 3-1 lead.

Elsewhere it was: Czech Republic 4, Norway 3 (SO); and Sweden 6, Denmark 4.

At Helsinki, Colorado Avalanche forward Paul Stastny added another goal with 1:13 to go in the second period to make it 3-2.

But Slovakia's Miroslav Satan completed the scoring with an empty-net goal with 37 seconds left in the game.

Czech Republic 4, Norway 3 (SO)

At Stockholm, Ales Hemsky scored the only goal of the shootout as the Czechs got past Norway.