By Trevor Stynes and Giulio Piovaccari
MILAN, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Slovakia were soundly beaten by the United States in the men’s Olympic ice hockey semi-final on Friday, but head into a battle with Finland to retain bronze with the comfort of an impressive tournament and an improved final period against the Americans.
Slovakia laid down an early marker in Milan, beating champions Finland in their opener, topping their group and easily saw off Germany in the last eight but proved no match for a U.S. side intent on winning their first gold since 1980.
“It’s a privilege to be here and represent your country at a tournament like this and to get this far, to be this close, to be successful,” captain Tomas Tatar said. “Obviously, for such a small country as we are against these giant hockey countries, we can compete.”
Slovakia fell to a 6-2 loss against the U.S. and the game was all but over by the end of the second period at five goals down, but they went on to outscore the Americans 2-1 in the final period.
“Coming to the third period, we talked about it in the locker room that we need to build something,” coach Vladimir Orszagh said.
“We need to build what we’ve been building for the whole tournament, but it wasn’t there for two periods for us. So we want to build the chemistry and the way we played in the games before. And we saw some light at the end of the tunnel in the third period. We won the period, so we want to build on it,” Orszagh said.
Slovakia may have beaten Finland 4-1 earlier in the Games, but the Finns have greatly improved since then, and almost pulled off a win against Canada in the other semi-final before letting a two-goal lead slip.
“You know, if you would say before a tournament for us, to play a bronze medal game, we would definitely take it,” Tatar added. “Obviously today hurts, but I’m sure we’re all excited to have that opportunity to play tomorrow for a bronze medal.”
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Will Dunham)
