Roster for warm-up games ahead of ice hockey champs released
Slovakia's squad for warm-up games ahead of the 2011 Ice Hockey World Championship was made public by head coach Glen Hanlon on Tuesday, March 22, albeit without goalies, the TASR newswire reported.
Speaking at a press conference held in the newly opened Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame in Bratislava, Hanlon presented a list of nine forwards and six defenders, who will later be complemented by several players from Slovakia's ice-hockey league teams that are currently competing in national semi-finals but who fail to make it through to the finals.
Hanlon noted that the choice wasn't easy, but one good thing was that there were plenty of players to choose from. A considerable percentage of them will also be shortlisted for the World Championships. Slovakia's two goalies playing in the NHL – Jaroslav Halák and Peter Budaj – are widely expected to secure the number 1 and 2 goalie positions for the tournament itself. The coach said that he would field some of the country's up-and-coming goalies in the preparatory matches.
The Slovaks, who will now have to gel as a team, will begin a series of pre-championship games in Finland on April 1.
The roster for warm-up matches is as follows:
Goalies: N/A
Defenders: Ivan Baranka (Spartak Moscow/KHL), Peter Podhradský (Dinamo Minsk/KHL), Dominik Graňák (Dinamo Moscow/KHL), Richard Lintner (SaiPa/Finland), Ivan Švarný (Litvinov/Czech Rep), Michal Sersen (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg/KHL)
Forwards: Miroslav Šatan (Dinamo Moscow/KHL), Juraj Mikúš, Štefan Ružička, Branko Radivojevič (all Spartak Moscow/KHL), Martin Cibák (Severstal Cherepovets/KHL), Rastislav Dej (Karlove Vary/Czech Rep.), Tomáš Surový (Dinamo Riga/KHL), Milan Bartovič (Liberec/Czech Rep.), Marcel Hossa (AK Bars Kazan/KHL.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
