The Slovakia men’s hockey team celebrated in an odd way despite losing their first game of the 2026 Winter Olympics 5-3 to Sweden on Saturday.
Lucas Raymond built a 5-2 lead late in the third period to solidify Sweden’s plus-3 goal differential, which would best Slovakia’s plus-2 and set them up to clinch Group B with a tiebreaker.
Dalibor Dvorsky had other plans.
With 39 seconds remaining, the Slovakian poked home a rebound to cut the deficit to 5-3.
If Finland earns a victory in regulation over Italy, it would create a three-way tie for first. This would send Slovakia straight to the quarterfinals as the winner of Group B because they would own the tiebreaker over Sweden.
This is because when three or more teams are tied in points, those teams are treated as a subgroup, and the first tiebreaker is the number of points they earned against each other.
Since each team earned three points in those games, the next tiebreaker is goal differential in the head-to-head matchups.
Finland’s goal differential in those two games was even. The Swedes were minus-1. Slovakia’s goal differential was plus-1.
“It’s probably the best loss I ever had,” said Slovakia’s Juraj Slafkovsky after the game. “It’s crazy, but we take it.”
This also has implications for the other top teams, as Canada and the USA would get a clear path to the No. 1 and 2 seeds heading into the playoff rounds.
Slafkovsky picked up a goal in his third straight game as netminder Samuel Hlavaj made 46 saves on 51 shots.
Elsewhere in men’s hockey, Latvia picked up a massive win 4-3 over Germany, its first since 2014.
Dans Locmelis netted a pair of goals as goaltender Arturs Silovs made 26 stops.
Tim Stutzle scored for Germany, while Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl was held off the scoresheet.
—With files from the Associated Press.
