THE SLOVAK national ice hockey team disappointed the Olympic-medal hopes that were sky-high across the nation after the team’s victory over Sweden in the tournament’s quarter-finals. Most Slovaks spent the early morning hours of February 27 and 28 in front of their TV screens following the ice hockey matches in Canada.
Slovakia lost the semi-final match against Canada 2:3 when after a smooth 3:0 run for Canada for most of the match the Slovak players pulled themselves together and managed to score two goals towards the end and then had several threatening but unsuccessful shots on goal in the last five minutes of the match.
In the match for the Olympic bronze against Finland, which had lost its semi-final with the USA, Slovakia did not sustain its good position and favourable score at the end of the match when the Finnish team had several power-plays and managed to turn the score, winning 5:3.
Despite the Slovak team returning home without an Olympic medal, their performance was generally evaluated as quite successful because it was the first time in history that Slovaks played in the Olympic semi-finals. Slovak biathletes brought home three medals from Vancouver: one gold, one silver and one bronze.
