Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice and added an assist for Slovakia on Wednesday in the opening game for men\u2019s hockey at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.<\/p>\n
Slovakia beat Finland 4-1 in the Group B preliminary-round matchup.<\/p>\n
Slafkovsky scored the tournament\u2019s first goal at 7:45 of the first period. In nets for Finland was Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what you do for an encore,\u201d said CBC play-by-play announcer Chris Cuthbert, in reference to Slafkovsky\u2019s performance at the previous Olympics. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound forward\u2019s coming-out party as a prospect was as a 17-year-old during the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, where he scored seven goals in seven games for Slovakia.<\/p>\n
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Slafkovsky played 20:07 and had a plus-2 differential.<\/p>\n
In 57 games this season, the 21-year-old first overall pick by the Canadiens in the 2022 NHL Draft has a career-high 21 goals, and with 47 points is six away from matching his total from a year ago in 79 games.<\/p>\n
His Habs teammate Oliver Kapanen was named to Team Finland, but was a healthy scratch for Wednesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Slafkovsky and Kapanen are two of four Montreal Canadiens players partaking in the 2026 Games. Nick Suzuki (Canada) and Alexandre Texier (France) are the other two.<\/p>\n
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