The Olympic tournament for the Lions had a disastrous start - Slovakia provided a freezing shower!

The Lions opened their campaign in the Olympics with a match against Slovakia on Wednesday evening. Finland’s tournament got off to a disastrous start, as Slovakia pulled off a surprise victory with a score of 4-1.

In terms of gameplay, Finland started the match strongly, but Slovakia was the one to score the opening goal of the tournament. In the first period, Mikko Lehtonen made a blind pass in his own zone directly to Juraj Slafkovsky, who skillfully buried the puck into the net past Juuse Saros.

At the start of the second period, Finland killed off their penalty and soon after got a power play. Just a couple of seconds after Slovakia’s penalty ended, Finland’s second power play unit leveled the game. Artturi Lehkonen passed to Joel Armia in the middle, who then set up Eeli Tolvanen at the goal line, allowing him to tap the puck into the empty net. After the equalizer, the game leveled out and the tempo slowed down.

In the final period, Slovakia hit the gas and took the lead again seven minutes into the period right after a faceoff in the offensive zone. Martin Gernat shot from the blue line, the puck got caught in a mass of players, and Dalibor Dvorsky managed to shoot the puck into the net from in front of the goal. The second assist was credited to Adam Liska.

It didn’t take long for Miro Heiskanen to take a penalty for delaying the game. On the power play, Slovakia went up 3-1 when Slafkovsky scored with a beautiful wrist shot, giving the team a two-goal lead. Simon Nemec and Dvorsky were credited with assists on the goal. Adam Ruzicka sealed the final score with an empty-net goal from Tomas Tatar and Slafkovsky’s assists.

In goal for Slovakia, Samuel Hlavaj played an outstanding game, making a total of 39 saves. In Finland’s goal, Saros recorded 21 saves.

The Lions’ tournament continues on Friday with a top match against Sweden.