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Czech-ing out: Pavelec hooked after fourth U.S. goal

PavelecGoalGetty

Add Ondrej Pavelec to the list of goalies unable to stop the American offense.

Pavelec was hooked after allowing four goals on 11 shots in Wednesday’s quarterfinal, replaced by backup Alexander Salak with the U.S. holding a commanding 4-1 lead.

The Winnipeg ‘tender looked shaky throughout the contest and seemed to struggle mightily with lively end boards at the Shayba Arena. The Americans opened the scoring early when James van Riemsdyk tallied just 1:39 into the contest, and were up 3-1 at the end of the first period thanks to goals from Dustin Brown and David Backes -- the latter coming with just two seconds left in the frame, as Backes took a shot that bounced off the dasher and put it past Pavelec.

Less than 10 minutes into the second period, U.S. captain Zach Parise scored his first goal of the Olympics -- on the power play -- as Pavelec was again fooled on a lively bounce off the end boards.

As mentioned above, Pavelec isn’t alone in his inability slow down the U.S. goalscorers this tournament. Slovakia’s Jaroslav Halak was also hooked during a 7-1 loss to the Americans in the opening game for both teams.