With yesterday’s victory over France in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, Slovakia has met two of the goals it set before the contest in Finland began: to make it to the quarter-finals and to win a ticket to the 2014 Winter Olympics, to be held in Sochi, Russia. The result marks the first time in five years that Slovakia has reached the last eight in the world championship, the Sme daily reported.
“The team play and fighting spirit decided [the result of the match],” said team captain Zdeno Chára, as quoted by Sme. “We have many young players in the team who have not played in such an important match yet.”
Though Slovakia beat France 5:4, it was not an easy match. Victory was decided by a third-period goal by Branko Radivojevič.
Source: Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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