The United States defeated Russia in a shoot-out to win a much-hyped group-stage ice hockey clash at Sochi 2014.
TJ Oshie scored the winner at the eighth time of asking as a prolonged shoot-out capped one of the great Olympic encounters between the two.
The teams had finished regulation play level at 2-2, Russia having a third goal controversially wiped out.
President Vladimir Putin looked on as Oshie's goal prompted US celebrations after Ilya Kovalchuk had missed.
US goaltender Jonathan Quick denied Kovalchuk after seven shoot-out attempts had failed to separate the two fierce rivals.
The final score was 3-2 to the US, with Oshie's game-winning penalty counting as the decisive goal.
Russia captain Pavel Datsyuk had put an initially dominant Russia ahead, but Cam Fowler and Joe Pavelsky scored for the US before Datsyuk's second tied the game.
However, two of Datsyuk's three appearances in the shoot-out ended in failure as the US earned a win that while not as momentous as 1980's"miracle on ice" - in which an amateur US side beat the Soviet Union - was every bit as gripping to watch.
The hosts are under immense pressure to win Olympic gold in Sochi. No Russian team has won the title since the break-up of the Soviet Union (though some Russians took part in the "Unified Team", representing six former Soviet republics, which won gold in 1992).
The US, meanwhile, are out to improve on the silver medal they won at Vancouver 2010, where hosts Canada took gold.
Fyodor Tyutin thought he had scored the game-winning goal for Russia late in the third period, but officials cancelled out the goal on video review as the US net had been fractionally off its moorings.
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