MILAN — Juraj Slafkovský said he had never celebrated so much after a loss.
He and the rest of his Slovak teammates had good reason to, after a late power-play goal from Dalibor Dvorsky put Slovakia in position to clinch Group B in the men’s Olympic hockey tournament despite a 5-3 loss to Sweden Saturday afternoon at Santagiulia Arena.
Under the tiebreaker rules, the Swedes needed at least a three-goal victory to win their group.
It meant that if Finland defeated Italy in regulation later in the day to force a three-way points tie, Slovakia’s goal differential would swing the tiebreak in its favor and send the team straight to the quarterfinal.
Of course, a stronger NHL-studded Finnish team trounced the host country, 11-0.
Just like that, the Slovaks earned a bye and a first-place finish in the group play.
The Finns’ intentional goal-scoring bonanza secured second, while Sweden settled for third and increased its chances of having to face either Canada or the U.S. in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Lo and behold, it was international hockey in its best and truest form.
Many expected the podium to shake out a certain way — with Canada, the United States and Sweden entering as favorites — but players in the tournament have repeatedly maintained that anything can happen on the Olympic stage.
Slovakia certainly was in the conversation, but the men’s national team has been a tough opponent with a 2-1 record through group play.
Saturday’s performance only punctuated a strong start to the tournament.
“It’s a pleasure to battle one for another,” Martin Fehérváry said. “I think it’s really important to be as one team, especially for a team like us. We don’t have as big names like Sweden or like Canada, right? But we got SlafGOALsky.”
Indeed, Fehérváry’s silly nickname for Slafkovský is very applicable.
The 21-year-old scored his tournament-leading third goal to tie the game at 1-1 in the first period before assisting on Dvorsky’s tournament-shifting score with 39 seconds left in regulation.
After another standout performance for Slovakia, Slafkovský now has 10 goals in 10 Olympic games over two tournaments.
He is just the fourth male to score that many goals before age 22, as well as the first since American Bruce Mather did so in 1948.
Slafkovský’s three goals and three assists since arriving in Italy have him tied with Canada’s Connor McDavid for the tournament lead.
“I’m lucky to be there,” he scoffed when presented with the fact. “And he deserves it.”
Four years ago in Beijing, a 17-year-old Slafkovský led the Slovaks to a bronze medal with seven goals in seven games.
The Canadiens drafted him first overall five months later.
Now in his fourth NHL season, Slafkovský’s 21 goals and 45 points in 57 games ranks second for Montreal.
Slovakia will go as far as Slafkovský can take them.
Noting that Slovakia hasn’t had a player like Slafkovský in so long, Fehérváry said he believes his country can be too negative about the young Slovak.
Everyone expects him to score five goals every game, he added, but Slafkovský has proved them wrong in this tournament.
“He’s our best player,” Slovakia coach Vladimir Orszagh said. “Everybody back home, they look up to him. How he’s going to play in the Olympic Games, because he’s having such a great NHL season. Everybody was looking [to see] can he bring that poise from the NHL to the Olympics. We can see, he did.”
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