Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice to choose up the place he left off 4 years in the past, fellow NHL participant Dalibor Dvorsky obtained the tiebreaking purpose with lower than 13 minutes left and Slovakia pulled off an upset within the first males’s hockey sport on the Milan Cortina Ol…

MILAN — Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice to choose up the place he left off 4 years in the past, fellow NHL participant Dalibor Dvorsky obtained the tiebreaking purpose with lower than 13 minutes left and Slovakia pulled off an upset within the first males’s hockey sport of the Milan Cortina Olympics, beating Finland 4-1 on Wednesday.

Slafkovsky, who was MVP on the 2022 Beijing Video games and now performs for the Montreal Canadiens, scored the primary purpose of this event lower than eight minutes in, skating by means of Finland’s protection and sliding the puck previous a helpless Juuse Saros. After Dvorsky scored within the third interval to place Slovakia forward, Slafkovsky wired a shot previous Saros on the facility play and pumped his fist to the gang.

Slafkovsky additionally scored the primary two targets of the opener in Beijing towards Finland, although that got here in a 6-2 loss. He completed with seven targets whereas serving to Slovakia win bronze, the nation’s first medal of any coloration in hockey on the Olympics.

He and his teammates obtained off to a surprisingly higher begin in Milan after it seemed on paper like they have been overmatched. Slovakia dressed seven NHL gamers, whereas all however one on Finland’s roster performs within the league.

Goaltender Samuel Hlavaj had lots to do with the preliminary underdog story on the ice, warding off one onslaught after one other. Finland outshot Slovakia 18-5 within the first interval and 39-25 total, and the Minnesota Wild prospect completed with 38 saves.

Unable to observe whereas the U.S. staff he runs was practising subsequent door, Wild normal supervisor Invoice Guerin stated “it is nice” that Hlavaj obtained off to such a robust begin on the Olympics.

It was not so good for Saros, the Nashville Predators starter who allowed three targets on 24 pictures in defeat. Finland subsequent performs archrival Sweden on Friday, and it is potential Vancouver’s Kevin Lankinen will get the nod, simply as he did in changing Saros in internet on the 4 Nations Face-Off a yr in the past.

Eeli Tolvanen, additionally a returning Olympian after taking part in in 2018, scored Finland’s solely purpose. Adam Ruzicka scored into an empty internet to seal it for Slovakia.

Sweden faces host Italy within the nightcap of Day 1.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics