“Slovak Ice Hockey Team Returns Home After 86th WC in Riga, Finishes 9th; Coach Ramsay’s Future Uncertain”

“We haven’t communicated about it yet, I’m going to take a few days to rest. It’s been two difficult months and everyone, be it the implementation team or the players, needs to rest now. I’ll talk to Mir Šatan about it.” Ramsay said after arriving at the Bratislava airport.

According to Marek Hrivík, he brought peace to the Slovak game and the direction in which the team wants to play: “I don’t know what his future is. I believe that it will become clear in the near future. We started playing fast and directly and achieved some successes. Hockey has moved forward, but we need to fine-tune the details that may have cost us the quarterfinals.”

The overseas coach saw the problem in the low efficiency and the number of expelled players: “Defensively we played well but we needed to score a bit more in key situations. We had too many penalty minutes but we also did a lot of good things. There were a lot of new players in the team who were well looked at and they performed well .” Striker Peter Cehlárik took some of the blame on himself: “We should have been more effective up front. The goalkeepers held us back and gave us a chance to win every match. Everyone worked hard to get the best possible result.”

The Slovak hockey team led by Ramsay played in five championships. In 2018 and 2019, she finished just short of advancing to the top eight. However, it worked in the previous two years and she wanted to follow up on it in Riga. However, she missed the process and is again in ninth place.

Slovaks played seven games, won three and lost four. In the B-group table, they gained 11 points, which was only enough for a non-progressive 5th place. The average age of the team at this year’s WC was 26 years. For the first time this year, eight players got a chance at the top tournament. All three goalkeepers – Samuel Hlavaj, Stanislav Škorvánek and Dominik Riečický, defenders František Gajdoš and forwards Martin Chromiak, Oliver Okuliar, Viliam Čacho. However, Dávid Mudrák did not play in the end, as the team was strengthened directly in Latvia by defenseman Šimon Nemec after being relegated to the AHL and later also to the NHL.

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Ramsay was pleased with their performance: “We had some new players in goal and they did a very good job for us. Everyone gave 100 percent even though we changed a few players. We tried to win every game but it didn’t work out. We played as a team and I’m proud of the players .” Čacho, who was one of the debutants, enjoyed the WC: “I experienced a great school of hockey. I don’t want to discount the extra league, but it can’t be compared to this level. My performances could have been better, although I think I didn’t disappoint. I’m looking forward, I hope we’ll come back stronger next year.”

The whole team watched the Tuesday evening duel between Switzerland and Latvia (3:4 pp), which could have pushed the Slovaks into the elimination round. Most of the team was not happy with the result, but the players acknowledged that they had themselves to blame for it. “There’s no need to talk about it, we should have played it ourselves. It’s behind us, we have to look forward and learn from it,” emphasized Hrivík, who was joined by Peter Cehlárik, who missed the matches against Switzerland and Kazakhstan due to an injury in the lower part of his body: “I still have a lot of thoughts in my head after the Swiss lost yesterday and we were eliminated. I’m a bit upset, but we have ourselves to blame for not going further. We have to learn from it and if we want to think about progressing, we have to get points in all the matches, regardless of the opponent. We had what it took to advance from the group.”

Hrivík has mixed feelings after the tournament: “Our goal was to advance to the quarter-finals and we regret how it turned out. But we had a lot of young players who gained experience for the next years. It was balanced so that we were younger and older. I feel that we lacked experience in important moments. Maybe that made the difference between advancing and not advancing.”

The Slovaks figure in the ranking of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in the interim 8th place, which guarantees them direct progress to the 2026 Olympics. Russia is also in the top eight, and their possible participation will be decided only next year. The best eight teams advance to the Olympics, and in order for Ramsay’s team to remain among them, they will need help from the Swiss again in the quarterfinals. In the event of Germany’s triumph, they will drop to 9th place and would have to play the qualification again for advancement. “They didn’t help us much yesterday, so I believe they will help us with a triumph over Germany.” stated Hrivík.

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