Studenic, Team Slovakia defeat USA in WJC stunner

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- During Slovakia's training camp in Rochester last week, Marian Studenic said he felt the team was special and, while they were focused on beating Denmark to avoid the relegation round and advance to the quarterfinals, he thought his team had the potential to surprise some people and maybe even play for a medal like they did in 2015 when Slovakia took home the bronze.

Thursday night, Studenic and Team Slovakia defeated Team USA 3-2 in the preliminary round of the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship in stunning fashion.
"I can't describe it. This is like unreal, like a dream," Studenic said after Slovakia broke a nine-game losing streak against USA at this event. "This is the first time I've beaten a team like USA. For our small country, this is like winning the Stanley Cup. I don't know how else to describe it. I'm so proud of these guys. We are such a good group of guys and we work like a team and we won. It's amazing. I'm so happy."

After losing to Canada, 6-0 Wednesday night, Slovakia's coaches demanded a better defensive effort against USA and the players responded and effectively eliminated USA's transition game. According to Studenic, when Slovakia scored first early in the second period, they started to believe that they could win.
"We wanted to play good defense because we knew they'd have the puck a lot and then try to score on odd-man rush." Said Studenic who has fresh stitches in his mouth after getting cut with a skate against Canada. "When we scored, we celebrated so hard. It was our first goal of the tournament and we took the lead against USA. Our goalie was playing so good, we just kept saying 'Let's go! We can win!' on the bench in the third."
Although Studenic has yet to record a point, he's been happy with his performance in his first two games of the tournament.
"I think I have a good game," he said. "I play for the team. I block shots and play hard. I want to give everything from me for the team and win the game. Of course I want to score goals and try to contribute offensively, but as long as we win, I don't care."
After back-to-back games, Slovakia will get a day off before playing Finland and Denmark over the weekend.
Notes:
Joey Anderson, captain of Team USA, had an assist, four shots, went 2-1 in the faceoff circle and played 15:04 minutes in the loss.
Yegor Zaitsev had one shot, was plus-1 and played 17:23 in Russia's 5-2 win over Switzerland.
Mikhail Maltsev had two shots and finished minus-2 after playing 18 minutes for Russia.
Michael McLeod had an assist, one shot and was plus-1in 14:20 TOI in Canada's 6-0 win against Slovakia on Wednesday.
Jesper Boqvist had one shot in 9:50 TOI in Sweden's 3-1 win over Czech Republic.
Fabian Zetterlund had one shot in 11:47 TOI playing mostly defensive minutes for Sweden.
There are only two games on Friday's schedule. Russia will play Belarus at noon, while USA and Canada take it outside at New Era Field, home to the NFL's Buffalo Bills. 40,000 people are expected to be in attendance for the 3 p.m. puck drop on NHL Network.