Martin Réway, Denis Godla and Peter Cehlárik with medals Source: SITA
GÖTEBORG – In two days, the opening match of the World Cup in Gothenburg awaits the Slovakian under-20 national team against their peers from the Czech Republic.
The team under the leadership of Ivan Feneš has the highest ambitions, and at the place where our A-team won the gold medal in 2002, they will try to improve the maximum from 1999 and 2015, when the Slovak 20 took home the bronze medal.
At the end of the millennium, the Russians took away our ambitions for gold
If the Slovak hockey team had an exceptional championship, one of the most important pillars was always our goalkeeper. It was no different even at the U20 championship in 1999, where Ján Lašák was magical in goal. Defenders Branislav Mezei and Peter Smrek also played an important role in the team at that time, who in later years became the mainstays of the A-team as well.
The duo Marián Gáborík and Ladislav Nagy starred in the attack, and they were the terror of the opponent’s defenses. A year after the championship, Gáborík became the highest drafted Slovak in history, when Minnesota chose him from the 3rd place.
Our 20-year-old performed famously throughout the championship, and the sensation in the semi-finals was not lacking much. After the unsuccessful match, she lost 0:3 to her Russian peers from the 24th minute, but after the beginning of the second half of the match, two quick strikes came in a row. Martin Cibák reduced the score to 1:3, and half a minute later Michal Hudec scored a contact goal. However, Zborná finally resisted the frantic Slovak pressure and kept the score 2:3 until the end of the match.
However, Slovak youngsters improved their appetite in the fight for 3rd place with Sweden, with whom it was a see-saw duel. Despite the fact that both Sedin brothers were able to score against us, the duel ended with a ratio of 5:4 for Slovakia, which thus won the first ever medal from the World Cup for players under the age of 20.
Bronze again at the expense of the Swedes
Our 20th team managed to repeat the same success only at the championship in 2015, where the sensational Denis Godla was declared the best goalkeeper of the tournament. Captain Martin Réway also had a great career, who completely overshadowed David Pastrňák in the match against the Czech Republic and, thanks to his incredible overview of the game, helped his teammates into one goal chance after another.
He scored a total of 9 points at the tournament, which was only two less than the Canadian super talents Connor McDavid or Sam Reinhart. The great chemistry with Petr Cehlárik and Pavlo Skalicky was seen every time our youngsters appeared together on the ice. This cooperation resulted in several key goals in victories 2:1 against Finland, 3:0 against the Czech Republic and especially 4:2 against Sweden in the bronze medal match.
- Author: © List/
- VIDEO: Youtube/Jan Filipp
- Source: Sports shoes
2023-12-24 17:05:58
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