Winter Olympics: Team USA Men’s Hockey Opens with Impressive Victory

Team USA's men's hockey team started its Winter Olympics run with a convincing 7-1 victory over Slovakia today.

Paul Statsny (of the NHL's Colorado Avalanche) scored two goals and Phil Kessel (Toronto Maple Leafs) had a goal and two assists. Goaltender Jonathan Quick (Los Angeles Kings) made 22 saves for the Americans in his Olympic debut.

Ryan Kesler (Vancouver Canucks,) David Backes (St. Louis Blues) and Dustin Brown (Los Angeles Kings) also scored goals.

Team USA took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, and then scored six times in a span of under 14 minutes in the second period to blow the game wide open.

Slovakia's only goal was scored by the Detroit Red Wings' Tomas Tatar.

Team USA's next game for the Sochi Winter Olympics is Saturday morning against Russia.