Olympics-Ice Hockey-Norway overcome Slovenia in overtime to make quarters
By Dan Burns
GANGNEUNG, South Korea, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Norway edged Slovenia 2-1 in overtime on Tuesday to win a spot in the quarter-finals of the men's Olympic ice hockey tournament, earning their first Olympic win and a matchup against a fearsome Russian team.
Alexander Bonsaken fired a wrist shot past Slovenia's Gasper Kroselj after the puck had popped out to him from a scrum in front of the net in the sudden-death period.
The loss for the Slovenians came after one of their players had been suspended for a substance violation.
Slovenia, which has had three of its four Olympic games go into overtime, was the first on the board, with Jan Urbas scoring on a first-period powerplay on an assist from captain Jan Mursak while Norway's Ludvig Hoff was off for hooking.
Norway, winless in three group-stage games, levelled it finally in the third when Martin Roymark sent a pass across the goal crease and Tommy Kristiansen tapped it past Gasper Kroselj.
It was only the third goal scored by Norway in the tournament so far, and heading into the game were the second-lowest scoring team after South Korea, who have just one.
The game started right after the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced Slovenian forward Ziga Jeglic had tested positive for a banned substance and would be suspended for the rest of the Games.
Jeglic had netted the game-winning shootout goal for Slovenia in their final group-stage game against Slovakia on Saturday.
Norway now play the tournament's highest-scoring team, the Olympic Athletes from Russia, on Wednesday. Slovenia are eliminated. (Reporting By Dan Burns; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
