Slovakia wins first ever Olympic medal
-
Loading... - Theo Pearson
- 21 Feb 2022
- 411 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Two goals in the second period and determined defence in the final 20 minutes gave Slovakia a 4-0 win over Sweden in the bronze medal game at the National Indoor Stadium tonight. This marks the first ever Olympic ice hockey medal for the Slovaks. In 2010, they had a 3-1 lead in the third against Finland but ended up losing, 5-3. There was no such collapse today, only joy and celebration as the buzzer sounded to end the game.
Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice, and Patrik Rybar recorded the historic shutout by stopping 28 Sweden shots.
"It’s just an amazing feeling," Slafkovsky said. "After all we went through, bouncing back from the first two losses and a tough [4-1] loss to Sweden in the group stage, and then we score four goals on them. This has been an amazing few weeks since the start of camp and I’m so happy to be part of this."
"I’m proud of the guys," said assistant captain Peter Cehlarik. "Obviously we had a rough time at the beginning of the tournament, but we came together and today we played amazing. That’s the way to win a game. The second half we were the better team. We outworked them. We outbattled them, and we deserve this. All the energy and the sadness from losing yesterday, we used it all tonight and I’m really proud of the guys."
"We didn’t have the legs today," admitted Sweden's coach Johan Garpenlov. "We didn’t have the mindset today, and we played a really good team. We tried really hard, but we couldn’t get anything going. We had a really tough game yesterday, after the overtime and shootout, and it was a late night for us. But then again, we had the whole day planned for us to recover and go for the bronze medal. But we couldn’t really get it going. And Slovakia got the first goal and some energy from that, and we couldn’t respond."
As is often the case with bronze games, it took a while for the teams to get going. The opening 20 minutes was tame and uneventful, with the exception of one dangerous flurry around the Sweden goal. Juraj Slafkovsky, the 17-year-old who has developed before our eyes in Beijing, made a little drop pass to Marek Hrivik, and he snapped a quick shot off the post. Moments later, Mislav Rosandic had a point-blank shot, but there were half a dozen bodies between him and the net, and his shot didn’t get through.
Sweden had the only power play on a rare minor to goalie Rybar for tripping, but nothing came of that. It was Rybar’s second minor of the tournament. The only other goalie penalty this Olympics was incurred by China’s Jieruimi Shimisi (Jeremy Smith).
The Slovaks picked up the pace in the second and took control with two goals. Slafkovsky scored his tournament-leading sixth at 3:17 on an odd play, the kind of goal that only goalscorers get. He got control of the puck in his own end and roared up ice, cutting down the left wing. He was angled towards the boards by Swedish defender Christian Folin, and in that moment Slafkovsky let go a shot. The puck was on end, and it then hit Folin in the leg and fooled Johansson.
Sweden then had a flurry of chances, but Rybar was rock solid. The Slovaks went up 2-0 on their second of two quick power plays. Pavol Regenda fought off two Swedes in the corner to get the puck, and he made a sharp pass out to the side for Samuel Takac. His shot beat Johansson to the short-side post, a shot the goalie should have saved. It was Slovakia’s first power-play goal of the entire tournament. Read More…
