Slovakia suffer bitter defeat at the Ice Hockey World Championship

Three shots, three goals—that is the best way to describe the opening stages of last Friday’s 2010 Ice Hockey World Championship game between Slovakia and Denmark.

In front of just under 4,400 spectators, the Slovaks—world champions in 2002, after all—were caught completely off guard by the Danes. After Denmark took a 3–0 lead, Slovak coach Glen Hanlon replaced the unfortunate goaltender Peter Budaj. But the new keeper, Rastislav Stana, could not prevent a Slovak debacle against Denmark either: he had no more luck in goal than Budaj and was also badly let down by the players in front of him. Morten Madsen in the 11th minute, Morten Green in the 13th, and Stefan Lassen in the 14th rounded off the scoring. The game was settled, and from then on the pattern was clear: the Danes didn’t want to score any more, and the Slovaks couldn’t.

Slovakia are now on the brink of elimination at the 2010 World Championship in Germany

“We outran them, we were simply everywhere. The 6–0 says it all,” Danish captain Jesper Damgaard told the press. Six years ago, Slovakia had comfortably won their only previous World Championship meeting, 8–0. Now, at the 2010 Ice Hockey World Championship, the 2002 world champions are backed into a corner in the qualification round: from their two remaining games, against Finland today, Monday, and the German team tomorrow, Tuesday, the Slovakian team need at least one more win to reach the quarter-finals.