{"id":462301,"date":"2026-02-18T18:18:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/462301\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T18:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:18:51","slug":"dalibor-dvorsky-produces-again-as-slovakia-beats-germany-to-reach-the-olympic-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/462301\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalibor Dvorsky produces again as Slovakia beats Germany to reach the Olympic semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Since arriving<\/a> at the Olympics, Slovakia\u2019s players and coaches<\/a> acknowledged they would lean heavily on Juraj Slafkovsky. They also emphasized it cannot be just about the emerging Montreal Canadiens star to make any kind of run.<\/p>\n

That was the message Wednesday before playing Germany in the quarterfinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were saying, \u2018It doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s going to score,’\u201d Slafkovsky said. \u201cWe just need that one extra goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

They got a few extra. Dalibor Dvorsky turned in another brilliant performance with a goal and an assist, fellow NHL forward Pavol Regenda scored twice as part of his three-point game and Slovakia dominated Germany 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the semifinals and guarantee playing for a medal in Milan.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazing,\u201d said alternate captain Erik Cernak, a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Tampa Bay Lightning. “Before the tournament, if we would say we\u2019re going to make semifinals, probably people would laugh at you. But we did it, and it\u2019s not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slovakia got an injury scare in the second period when the 21-year-old Slafkovsky, the reigning Olympic MVP<\/a>, went head-first into the boards and was slow to get up. A trainer applied an ice pack to the back of Slafkovsky’s neck, and he held it on himself when he got up to celebrate a goal scored while he was getting medical attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m OK,” Slafkovsky said. “I was a little shaken up, but after a couple minutes I felt OK again. I went out there, and head wasn\u2019t spinning. I was seeing normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slafkovsky was held off the scoresheet until assisting on captain Tomas Tatar’s empty-net goal with 3:27 left, and he was thrilled to see his teammates fill the net instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it does matter if Slafko has some points,” defenseman Martin Fehervary said. \u201cHe can do some other work for us, and we have plenty of players who can score, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dvorsky, who plays for the St. Louis Blues, and Regenda, who split time between the San Jose Sharks and their American Hockey League affiliate this season, led the way offensively. Dvorsky made the initial pass that led to Milos Kelemen’s goal and had a terrific individual effort to spring himself for his third goal at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the rink, Minnesota Wild goaltending prospect Samuel Hlavaj did his job, making 25 saves and allowing only goals to Lukas Reichel, off a feed from Leon Draisaitl, and to Frederik Tiffels on the power play.<\/p>\n

Slovakia is four years removed from Slafkovsky scoring seven goals and leading it to bronze, the country’s first hockey medal of any color at the Olympics. That was after the NHL pulled out of participating in Beijing at the eleventh hour because of pandemic-related scheduling issues.<\/p>\n

This time, the competition included Draisaitl, Finland’s Mikko Rantanen and Sweden’s William Nylander among the stars who were missing in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably 100 times better,” Slafkovsky said. “You\u2019ve got the best players over here, and we managed to come here and go to semifinals. It\u2019s big for me, big for our country, big for every supporter we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was supposed to be something of a learning experience tournament, with more hope for the 2028 World Cup of Hockey and the 2030 Games in the French Alps when some of Slovakia’s younger players had more experience. Instead, coach Vladimir Orszagh’s team already exceeded expectations just by getting to this point.<\/p>\n

“I cannot be more proud of our players,” Orszagh said. \u201cWe are a band of brothers who work for the team, for each other, and living our dream. And we\u2019re still living.”<\/p>\n

Slovakia as the No. 3 seed can face any of the U.S., Finland, Switzerland, Sweden or Czechia in the semifinals Friday, depending on how the rest of the results go.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to keep working, and whatever opening comes next, we\u2019re going to be ready for whoever,\u201d Regenda said. “We have to be as a team as we are. We have great guys, and we have to stick as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. plays Sweden after top-seeded Canada takes on Czechia, with Finland versus Switzerland taking place across town at the secondary arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can move the puck really well,\u201d U.S. defenseman Noah Hanifin said of the Swedes, who beat Latvia in the qualification playoff<\/a> to reach the quarterfinals. \u201cI think for us it\u2019s just about having a good start. They played last night. Just got to get on them early and kind of establish that physical game that makes us a good team. Play fast. It should be a lot of fun, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Winter Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n

Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 Since arriving at the Olympics, Slovakia\u2019s players and coaches acknowledged they would lean heavily on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5983,6829,2312,6544,5,976,370,8669,5926,270,55690,38,264,21,5147,4,2833,1265,168,20225,4507,84,92,5846,1114],"class_list":{"0":"post-462301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-dalibor-dvorsky","10":"tag-dvorsky","11":"tag-erik-cernak","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-juraj-slafkovsky","15":"tag-leon-draisaitl","16":"tag-lukas-reichel","17":"tag-martin-fehervary","18":"tag-mikko-rantanen","19":"tag-milos-kelemen","20":"tag-minnesota-wild","21":"tag-montreal","22":"tag-montreal-canadiens","23":"tag-montrealcanadiens","24":"tag-nhl","25":"tag-noah-hanifin","26":"tag-pavol-regenda","27":"tag-san-jose-sharks","28":"tag-semifinals","29":"tag-slovakia","30":"tag-st-louis-blues","31":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","32":"tag-tomas-tatar","33":"tag-william-nylander"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116093017868964999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462301","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=462301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}