The 2026 Winter Olympic Games Men’s Hockey tournament is officially underway, and San Jose Sharks forward Pavol Regenda and Slovakia started it off with a bang.

Slovakia is improving in hockey, and Wednesday was proof of that. Slovakia opened its tourney with a hard matchup against Finland, a team full of NHLers. With the crowd heavily on its side, Slovakia beat the 2022 gold medalists (with no NHLers) 4-1.

Before the Sharks’ last game before the break, Regenda spoke at length about what Slovakia expected of its fans. Traveling to Milano Cortina is not difficult, so a large fan base is expected from Slovakia. Regenda said his entire family and his girlfriend are attending the Olympics.

“It’s like an hour, 30 minutes flight. It’s pretty close, really, really, really close. You can even drive, drive. It’s like nine hours,” Regenda said. “So it’s hard with tickets, because I heard [the] arenas are not that huge. It’s really close. [I] expect a lot of people are gonna come.”

The San Jose Sharks forward played with familiar linemates. Regenda played with Calgary Flames center Martin Pospisil and former Arizona Coyotes forward Milos Kelemen. The trio was listed as Slovakia’s second line and deployed accordingly. Regenda finished the game with 15:28 time on ice, good enough for 11th on his team.

Slovakia got two goals and an assist from Montreal Canadiens young star Juraj Slafkovsky. The former No. 1 pick has played in eight career Olympic games and scored nine goals.

Regenda is on the second power-play unit for Slovakia. Since joining the San Jose Sharks, Regenda has made a living from being in front of the net. The winger provides size and has a nice finishing touch when there are rebounds available. He didn’t finish with a point, but registered two shots in Wednesday’s game.

Slovakia’s next game is on Friday against the host nation, Italy. Italy is playing Sweden’s Alexander Wennberg on Wednesday.

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