The 2026 Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey competition kicked off with an upset on Wednesday, as Slovakia defeated Finland 4-1 in the tournament’s opening game at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.
Juraj Slafkovsky (Montreal Canadiens) scored twice to lead Slovakia to victory, while Dalibor Dvorsky (St. Louis Blues) and Adam Ruzicka also found the back of the net. Eeli Tolvanen (Seattle Kraken) was Finland’s lone goal scorer in the loss.
With a pair of tallies, Slafkovsky now has nine goals in eight career games at the Olympics, tying Ilya Kovalchuk (Russia) and Jaromir Jagr (Czechia) for eighth-most in tournament history. That’s some pretty elite company for the 21-year-old. He scored seven goals in seven games for Slovakia at the 2022 Olympics during his draft year, when NHL players did not participate.
While Slafkovsky only added to his impressive Olympic resume on Wednesday, Slovakia’s best player against Finland was 24-year-old netminder Samuel Hlavaj (Minnesota Wild). The undrafted goaltender was nothing short of sensational, stopping 39 of 40 shots faced to record the win in his Olympic debut. Hlavaj has a meager 3.33 goals-against average and .884 save percentage in 18 AHL appearances with the Iowa Wild this season, but he stepped up his game when his country needed him to most.
On the losing end of the men’s Olympic opener was Chicago Blackhawks’ forward Teuvo Teravainen, who skated on Finland’s second line with Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes) and Artturi Lehkonen (Colorado Avalanche). Teravainen failed to record a point but did register three shots on goal and had a plus-one rating in 16:46 of ice time.
Teravainen had one quality chance early in the game that Hlavaj stopped, but otherwise, it wasn’t the most notable performance. Between the three forwards who skated on the second line, Lehkonen was the most active. He finished with four shots on goal and had two or three terrific chances to convert.
As expected, Teravainen was also heavily utilized by Finland on special teams, playing on both the second power-play unit and the top penalty-kill group. The Finns’ lone goal was scored shortly after a Slovakian penalty expired, with Tolvanen burying a feed from Joel Armia (Los Angeles Kings) into a yawning cage. Teravainen was on the ice along with the second unit and moved the puck effectively to help set up Tolvanen’s tally.
EELI TOLVANEN zakončil fantastickou kombinaci Finska! 🚨🇫🇮
Celá ta přesilovka byla ukázka obrovské kvality a sebevědomí finských hráčů.. pic.twitter.com/2rgNYrVc46
— Vojtěch Tůma (@vojtechtuma7) February 11, 2026
But with Finland trailing by a goal near the midway point of the third period, Teravainen committed a costly giveaway, which led to Slovakia extending the lead. With the Finns shorthanded, Teravainen won a board battle along the left wall and had a chance to clear the puck out of the defensive zone. His attempt didn’t get past Slovak defenseman Simon Nemec (New Jersey Devils) at the blue line, however, and Slafkovsky scored his second of the game moments later for a crucial insurance goal.
After going undefeated en route to a Gold Medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Finland now has its back against the wall after dropping their opening game to Slovakia. Up next is a tough matchup on Friday (5:10 a.m. CT) against Sweden, their bitter rivals who are largely projected to win Group B.
Sweden plays its opening game of the 2026 Men’s Olympic tournament later on Wednesday against Italy, the host country, at 2:10 p.m. CT.
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