MILAN \u2014 Of all the remarkable things that happened during Slovakia\u2019s 6-2 quarterfinal victory over Germany on Wednesday afternoon, perhaps the most impressive feat belonged to the Slovak athletic trainer, who deftly managed to keep an ice pack on the nation\u2019s most important neck as Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd leapt to his feet in celebration of Milos Kelemen\u2019s second-period goal.<\/p>\n
Moments earlier, Slafkovsk\u00fd, the 21-year-old rising superstar who has put Slovakia back on the hockey map, had gone head-first into the boards, partially from his own momentum, partially from a nudge from a Moritz Seider fly-by. Slafkovsk\u00fd lay flat on the ice, face down, for several seconds before slowly getting up and trudging back to the bench, where he received a quick neck rub and an ice pack. A hockey-loving nation, which has been waiting for a player like this \u2014 for a team like this \u2014 since the days of Mari\u00e1n Hossa, Zdeno Ch\u00e1ra, Peter Bondra, Pavol Demitra, Ziggy Palffy and Mari\u00e1n Gaborik, held its collective breath.<\/p>\n
Then Kelemen went outside and inside around German defenseman Lukas K\u00e4lble, sending the pretzeled German off his feet and the fans at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena \u2014 and Slafkovsk\u00fd \u2014 onto theirs with a slick backhander over Philipp Grubauer\u2019s outstretched glove. Thirty-three seconds later, Oliver Okuliar made it 3-0, and the rout was on.<\/p>\n
Slovakia is back. Back in the spotlight. Back to international relevance. Back to playing for medals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still kind of can\u2019t believe we made it to (the) top four,\u201d Washington Capitals defenseman Martin Feh\u00e9rv\u00e1ry said. \u201cObviously, I believed in our group, but this tournament \u2014 NHL players, stars on the other teams \u2014 it seems a little bit unreal. I\u2019m just so happy and excited. I never really made it to (the) top four at some big tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slovakia is actually the defending Olympic bronze medalist after a stirring run in Beijing in 2022. But that tournament was held without fans because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and without NHL players. This is something entirely different, and it\u2019s a shocking performance from a young team that\u2019s at least four years ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
The upstart Slovaks, by far the story of this otherwise milquetoast tournament, will face either the United States or the winner of Wednesday\u2019s Switzerland-Finland game in the semifinals on Friday, and are guaranteed to play in a medal game. When the tournament began, the thought of another bronze medal was almost laughable, a long-term goal that just didn\u2019t seem realistic yet for this young group of players, most of whom toil in relative anonymity in leagues in the Czech Republic or Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Now, they\u2019re thinking about gold. Why the heck not?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, for sure,\u201d New Jersey Devils defenseman \u0160imon Nemec said. \u201cIf we\u2019re in the semifinal, you have to think about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Slafkovsk\u00fd was on the bench for the 33-second span that turned this game from a taut affair to a laugher shouldn\u2019t be overlooked. Slafkovsk\u00fd, the Montreal Canadiens winger who was the NHL\u2019s No. 1 draft pick in 2022, has gotten the lion\u2019s share of the attention in these Games, and understandably so. He\u2019s a true star and a big-game performer, with 10 goals in 10 Olympic games entering the quarterfinals. He\u2019s the hope of a nation.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s not alone. Against a German team with high expectations and a much higher level of talent \u2014 Leon Draisaitl, Tim St\u00fctzle, JJ Peterka, Seider, Grubauer \u2014 Slovakia had a total team effort to advance to the semis. St. Louis Blues rookie Dalibor Dvorsk\u00fd has been consistently excellent in Milan and has three goals and three assists in four games after adding one of each against Germany. San Jose Sharks rookie Pavol Regenda had two goals and an assist as well. Nemec has been dynamic on the back end. Samuel Hlavaj, who struggled so mightily in the American Hockey League this season that the Minnesota Wild demoted him to the ECHL for a game \u2014 has been a rock in net, with a .932 save percentage in three starts.<\/p>\n
And the rest of the mostly anonymous Slovaks \u2014 only seven are in the NHL \u2014 have completely bought in on a smart, physical, conservative-but-opportunistic team game that has allowed them to stun Finland in the opener, survive a scare from Italy, then give mighty Sweden a tough game in the group-stage finale. In that Sweden game, the Slovaks scored a late goal that made a loss effectively a win, as it gave them the edge in goal differential, meaning a Group B victory and a bye into the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be about Slafkovsk\u00fd or Nemec or other guys,\u201d Slovakia coach Vladimir Orsz\u00e1gh said. \u201cIf we want to be successful, we can\u2019t be about a couple guys. And our team is not about a couple guys. Our team is about 25 guys we have on the roster. They work, they stick together on the ice and every day somebody else is a hero. But for me, all the guys are heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only are the Slovaks playing well, but they\u2019re also playing loose. They seem to be having more fun than any other team in the tournament, from their silly goal song to their joke-filled press scrums.<\/p>\n
Turns out, playing hockey with your friends is fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how many games we\u2019ve played together. We played so many games together,\u201d Nemec said. \u201cWe know each other and it\u2019s more fun to play if you know the guys, if you grow up with them. Like me, Juraj, Dalibor \u2014 we are really good friends. Then it\u2019s easier to play with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe play the sport we love, right?\u201d Dvorsk\u00fd added. \u201cWe should be having fun playing it, and we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the other side, the Germans were in almost disbelief. Given their star power and expectations, the 2026 Olympics were nothing short of a disaster for Germany, which brought its deepest roster ever to Milan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we threw way too many pucks away,\u201d St\u00fctzle said through gritted teeth. \u201cEspecially if we had them in the O-zone, we were shooting into way too many blocks. It happened a lot this tournament, where we kind of got out-chanced in the second period, where they get two-on-one, three-on-one breaks. We did it again today.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was supposed to be Germany or the Czech Republic or Switzerland that upended this tournament. But it was Slovakia who crashed the party. And given the age and dynamic nature of their team \u2014 Slafkovsk\u00fd is 21, Dvorsk\u00fd is 20, Nemec is 22, Regenda, Martin Posp\u00ed\u0161il and Martin Feh\u00e9rv\u00e1ry are 26, Hlavaj is 24 \u2014 it\u2019ll be the last time they\u2019re overlooked.<\/p>\n
The upstarts are just starting up.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into the tournament, seeing the roster, I don\u2019t think anybody believed us,\u201d Regenda said. \u201cAnd probably neither did we. \u2026 In a tournament like underdogs can bite really hard, so we are really happy where we are right now. Top four, unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Of all the remarkable things that happened during Slovakia\u2019s 6-2 quarterfinal victory over Germany on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5120],"tags":[71,5,54125,21,151,4,2602,168,534,84,5285,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-462281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-blues","8":"tag-blues","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-new-jersey-devils","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-olympics","15":"tag-san-jose-sharks","16":"tag-st-louis","17":"tag-st-louis-blues","18":"tag-stlouis","19":"tag-stlouisblues"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116092942815730473","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}