The Slovaks suffered a terrible debacle 0:9. The coach then surprised: We can play evenly with the USA

Slovak hockey players certainly did not imagine such a start to the tournament. At the start of the championship in Finland, they encountered the reigning champions from the USA, but few expected a 0:9 result.

“We have to look to our conscience. We failed to capture the beginning of the match, we conceded a quick goal. Immediately after that came the expulsion and a goal to make it 0:2. The Americans had a good start and we didn’t spoil their hockey as much as we wanted,” the coach looked for the reasons for the defeat Martin Dendis.

At the same time, however, he arrived at at least some positives. Maybe because the brutal result did not fully correspond to the chances or the ratio of shots, which the United States controlled “only” 35:24.

“When we managed to fulfill the small details like in the second period, we showed that we can play a balanced game with the USA,” said Dendis.

The Americans saw their entry into Group A clearly. “It was a fun game,” smiled James Hagens, who scored two goals and added two assists.

He could be one of the authors of another dominant performance by the United States at the World Cup. Just remember last year’s run: first place without defeat, score 51:10.

“Our biggest goal is to play as a team, but yes – we came here for the gold,” says Hagens.

The Slovaks now face a difficult task. After the debacle, to get together and prepare as best as possible for the next opponent, which will be Latvia. “Now we need to forget about this match. Preparation for the next duel against Latvia begins. We need good regeneration and quality sleep,” declared Tomáš Pobežal, who was declared the best player on the Slovak side.