Slovakia celebrates first Olympic hockey medal
Slovakia won its first Olympic ice hockey medal thanks to a 4-0 victory over Sweden in the bronze medal game. Teenage wunderkind Juraj Slafkovsky led the way with two goals, while Dinamo Minsk goalie Patrik Rybar came up with a shut-out as his country made history in Beijing.
Sweden 0 Slovakia 4 (0-0, 0-2, 0-2)
Slafkovsky, whose seven-goal haul has been one of the stories of the Games, said: “It’s just an amazing feeling. After all we went through, bouncing back from the first two losses and a tough loss to Sweden in the group stage, now we score four goals on them.
“This has been an amazing few weeks since the start of camp and I’m so happy to be part of this.”
And Peter Cehlarik paid tribute to goalie Rybar, who was not expected to be first choice here. “Man, he battled hard to get into the line-up,” he said. “In our second game against Sweden he came in the third period and he was big. From then on, I think he dominated.”
And the Avangard forward was delighted with how the team rallied after losing to Finland and Sweden in its opening games.
“I’m proud of the guys,” he added. “We had a rough time at the beginning but we came together and today we played amazing. That’s the way to win a game. The second half, we were the better team. We outworked them, we outbattled them and we deserve this. All the energy and sadness from losing yesterday, we used it all tonight and I’m really proud of the guys.”
For Sweden, a campaign that began so strongly ended in disappointment. Johan Garpenlov’s team may have been suffering a hangover from its shoot-out loss to team ROC in Friday’s second semi-final, but the Tre Kronor struggled to get started in this game.
“We didn’t have the legs today,” said Garpenlov. "We didn’t have the mindset and we played a really good team today. We tried hard but we couldn’t get anything going.
“Yesterday was tough, after the overtime and the shoot-out, and it was a late night for us. But then again, we had the whole day planned for us to recover and go for the bronze. But we couldn’t really get it going. Slovakia got the first goal and got some energy from that, and we couldn’t respond.”
Forward Carl Klingberg, once of Torpedo, admitted that it was tough to bounce back after Friday’s dramatic defeat.
“I don’t know what to say, it is incredibly, incredibly empty,” he said. “From having been one penalty from making it to the final to this. Sport is cruel sometimes.
"We really wanted this bronze. But perhaps it’s that knife-sharp focus that we are lacking today. For several different reasons.”
Indeed, it wasn’t until Slafkovsky had opened the scoring that we saw anything of Sweden’s offense. That opening goal came after three minutes of the second period and put the youngster out in front with six goals in Beijing. Subsequently, the Swedes began to create but found Rybar was rock solid at the other end.
Late in the middle frame, Slovakia got its first power play goal of the tournament to double its lead thanks to Samuel Takac. After that, it was a case of ‘what we have, we hold’, as Craig Ramsay’s men stepped up to ensure there would be no repeat of the bronze-medal collapse in Vancouver 12 years earlier. Breaking out of defense, meanwhile, Avangard’s Peter Cehlarik had a chance to wrap it up, but was denied by SKA’s Lars Johansson to keep Sweden in the game.
After Johansson was called to the bench, Pontus Holmberg came close to getting the Swedes back in contention. However, his attempted deke to the backhand didn’t come off and the puck slithered past the side of the net. Seconds later, Slafkovsky potted his second of the game into an empty net, and Pavol Regenda repeated that trick moments later to seal an historic victory.
Slovakia’s veteran head coach Ramsay was delighted with a win he described as “the top” in his long career. “I told them we can beat anybody and in the end this third period was the best period I’ve ever seen in my 50 years in hockey,” he said.
“The talk on the bench was spectacular, the talk on the ice was spectacular and that’s when you know you have a team.”
Now, Cehlarik can’t wait to celebrate. “I have no idea what’s going on at home right now,” he said. "I can’t wait to call home. I just appreciate all the support we have, even through the rough start.
“There’s a lot of hype going on [in Slovakia] and I can’t wait to see it when we arrive.”
