Slovakia’s men picked up their first Olympic ice hockey medal as an independent nation as they beat Sweden 4-0 for bronze at the Beijing Games on Saturday. Surprise packages Slovakia, who knocked out a United States side deprived of its NHL stars in the quarter-finals, went one better than in 2010 when they finished fourth. It is Slovakia’s second medal of the Games following Petra Vlhova’s gold in the alpine skiing slalom. A tired Sweden, beaten agonizingly on penalties by the Russians in Friday’s semi-final, were undone by goals from forwards Juraj Slafkovsky and Samuel Takac in the second p…