Demitra's penalty shot hands Slovakia shock win over Russia

From Sportsbeat staff, in Vancouver

 PAVOL Demitra's penalty shot has handed Slovakia a shock victory over world champions Russia at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

DISBELIEF: Slovakia's Pavol Demitra is in shock after Slovakia upset world champions Russia on penalty shots in Vancouver (Getty Images)

Demitra bagged his side's seventh penalty shot after both teams had scored one of their first three, before the next six efforts were saved and Evgeni Malkin missed Russia's seventh.

The victory hands Slovakia two points - their first points of the competition - and puts a severe dent in the hopes of Russia, the world number ones, lifting the Olympic crown for the first time.

Russia arrived in Vancouver as one of the hot favourites to win gold but were not at their best in their opening victory against Latvia and now must defeat the Czech Republic to confirm their place in the knock-out stages.

They started brightly enough and took the lead with Alexei Morozov's sixth minute strike but the expected on-slaught did not ensue.

Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin was far from his best while the Russians only out shot their opponents, nine places below them in the world rankings, by four.

And it came as little surprise Marian Hossa equalised for Slovakia midway through the third period.

Russia, keen to avoid an embarrassing defeat, pushed for a winner but could find no way through and while overtime ensued, Slovakian goaltender Jaroslav Halak was in fine form and penalty shots ensued.

Jozef Stumpel piled the pressure on Russia by scoring Slovakia's first effort and while Morozov failed to find the net, Ovechkin netted to level things up after Demitra missed his first.

Hossa, Stumpel, Michal Handzus and Marian Gaborik missed Slovakia's next four while Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and Ovechkin [2] were unsuccessful for Russia.

But Demitra then found the net, while Malkin missed to complete a shock victory for Slovakia.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Russia's women ground out a hard-fought victory over China, courtesy of goals from Ekaterina Smolentseva and Marina Sergina, while Fengling Jin's replied for China.

AS IT HAPPENS: Day seven of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver