The United States men's ice hockey team opened their Winter Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 campaign with a hard fought victory over Slovakia. In a dramatic ending that included a penalty shootout, the favourites secured a 5-4 result. The first period started as planned for Team USA, when Zane Torre scored just one minute and 37 seconds into the first men's game of these Youth Olympics. The Slovakians fought back to equalise and began to dominate. The USA briefly regained the lead at 2-1 before Slovakia scored three, Kristian Reznicak putting the underdogs into a 4-2 lead in the third, with his second goal of the match. Team USA were pushing hard to get back on level score. With 54 seconds left on the clock Torre scored the equalising goal to make it 4-4 and send the game into a penalty shootout. In the shootout, Slovakia failed to get past Xavier Wendt in goal, while Team USA held their nerves to net three times and claim the win.