Slovakia is one of the more intriguing teams competing in the men’s hockey tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Not because the country is expected to win gold or even compete for a medal, but because two of its top players — Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec — are competing at just 17, with both likely to be selected early in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft in July.
The Slovaks fell to Finland in their tournament opener early Thursday morning by a score of 6-2, but Slafkovsky, who’s the youngest player competing in the men’s tournament, gave fans in his home country a whole lot to cheer about.
Early in the first period, he opened the scoring from point-blank range where he cleaned up a rebound and roofed the puck past Finnish netminder Harri Sateri. He later scored again with a wicked wrister from the right faceoff dot to briefly shift momentum back in his squad’s favor.
SEE MORE: Juraj Slafkovsky scores twice in Olympic debut for Slovakia
In the end, though, Slovakia was unable to keep up with the Finns in the scoring department.
Finnish forward Sakari Manninen netted a hat trick while Harri Pesonen and Miro Aaltonen (who scored twice) both earned markers of their own.
SEE MORE: Manninen nets Olympic hat trick for Finns against Slovakia
While it was a disappointing start to the tournament for the Slovaks, the strong play of Slafkovsky certainly gives them something to build on going into their next tilt.
They’ll face off against Sweden Friday morning at 3:40 a.m. ET while Finland will next take the ice against Latvia Friday morning at 8:10 a.m. ET.
Click here to view all the stats from the Finland’s win over Slovakia, and click here to watch the full event replay from start to finish.
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