Slovakia late goal helps clinch Group B, earn bye into quarterfinals

MILAN -- Juraj Slafkovsky pumped his fist and screamed.

It was a magic moment for him and Team Slovakia at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, one that could go down in the proud lore of his country.

This is what he said afterward:

"I've never been part of a better loss."

That's right, the magic moment came in a 5-3 loss to Team Sweden at Santagiulia Arena on Saturday.

In fact, it was Slovakia's third goal, by Dalibor Dvorsky with 39 seconds left in the third period that led to the wild celebration after the Group B preliminary round game.

Due to the tiebreaker scenario at the Olympics, that third goal gave Slovakia the highest goal differential among them, Sweden and Team Finland in the three games those teams played against each other.

And when Finland defeated Team Italy 11-0 later Saturday, Slovakia officially clinched the group, advancing straight to the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Finland can still win the one wild card into the quarterfinals, but Sweden, a gold medal favorite, will now have to win four in row to win gold, starting with the qualification round Tuesday. Matchups have not yet been determined.

If you're confused, join the club, but Slovakia understood the situation.

"The guys, they knew the math," Slovakia coach Vladimír Országh said. "But we didn't talk about it, because every game, you are trying to win. You don't want to get in front of the guys and be like, 'Hey guys, if we lose by two goals, we are still OK.' No, we want to win. We play for the win."

Slovakia (2-0-1-0) entered the game with an even clearer path to the Group B title and the bye into the quarterfinal round that came with it -- just one point, via either a regulation win, an overtime win or even an overtime loss.

And it looked to be in good shape, tied 1-1 after the first period and trailing 3-2 after the second.

But Elias Pettersson (7:57) and Lucas Raymond (11:38) scored in the third period to give Sweden a 5-2 lead, a margin of victory that would've given Sweden (2-0-1-0) the group title.

But Raymond took a slashing penalty at 17:22 of the third, putting Slovakia on the power play with a chance for the massive third goal.

"He has to own it," Sweden coach Sam Hallam said about Raymond. "We support him. We do things together as a team. We learn from it and I'm pretty sure he's going to be fired up for the next game."

Országh said he didn't consider pulling his goalie to give his team a 6-on-4 because another goal for Sweden could've hurt Slovakia's chance of possibly winning the wild card.

"We knew that if you want to go to first place, we need to score on goal," Országh said. "But on the other side, if you're going to be down 5-2, we are going from second place. So, we didn't even think about [pulling the goalie]."

Slovakia huddled up and talked about what was needed.

"We were just trying to calm down, relax," Slafkovsky said. "We didn't have to rush anything. We had a full two minutes, there was two minutes, 30 seconds left in the game, and we were trying to play it slow."

With two seconds left on the power play, Slafkovsky threw a wrist shot on goal that trickled past Sweden goalie Jacob Markstrom, Dvorsky knocked it in to make it a 5-3 with 39 seconds left.

Slafkovsky, the Montreal Canadiens forward who scored his third goal of the Olympics earlier in the game, said he didn't see the puck go in.

"I just shot it at the net and I didn't know where the puck was, and all of a sudden I see [Dvorsky] celebrating," Slafkovsky said. "I just started jumping there, which is crazy because we were still down two goals."

When asked if it was the biggest goal he's ever scored in a loss, Dvorsky said, "Yeah, probably," with a laugh.

"Super happy, obviously," Dvorsky said. "I mean, not too much to say, I hope it's the goal that gets us first place, but let's see how Finland plays."

The wild celebration after the goal was followed by Sweden pulling Markstrom despite leading by two goals. After all, for Sweden to own the goal-differential tiebreaker over Slovakia, it needed to score again.

"That's the rules of the tournament, so we were prepared for that," Slovakia forward Milos Kelemen said. "And it was like a special situation, but we played well in our defensive zone, and yeah, we lose the game, but we got what we want."

For Sweden, it was left to root against its rival Finland against Italy to no avail, but Hallam said the end result of the tournament, not who wins the group, is what matters. He was quick to point out that Canada had to play an extra game in Vancouver in 2010 and still won gold.

"There's different ways. I don't know if you guys remember, but I do, Vancouver 2010," Hallam said. "So, if you want two days rest or one day's rest and a practice and a game, the result has to speak for itself.

"Just look ahead, but because everything that's really good never comes easy."