China loses to US in Olympic men's ice hockey debut

BEIJING - China played its first ever men's ice hockey game in the Winter Olympics where it lost 8-0 to the United States here on Thursday.

China offered waves of offense before American forward Brendan Brisson scored the first goal at 10:38.

The US, fourth in world rankings, dominated the remaining time of the game and scored seven more goals.

"It's an honor to wear the Team China jersey. I think we can play even better, I think that there's room for growth. If we can just keep growing, keep learning, we'll see that a miracle can happen," said Chinese goalkeeper Shimisi Jieruimi.

Other action saw 30-year-old Sakari Manninen scored three goals to help Finland beat Slovakia 6-2.

Finland scored four goals after Slovakia's forward Juraj Slafkovsky put the puck into the net at 5:33.

Slafkovsky scored his second goal in the 32nd minute, but Finland scored twice in the third period to seal the victory.

"We had really good offence today. Six goals, we have to be happy with that," Manninen said. "We had some chances and scored on them, we had a good goalie and good penalty kill, but we also have things to improve."

Elsewhere, Sweden edged past Latvia 3-2, while Canada defeated Germany 5-1.