At the Junior Ice Hockey World Championships, Slovakia appears to want to show its opponents that it is a force to be reckoned with, picking up its second win in just a few days in Gothenburg on Wednesday.
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Well served by their goalkeeper Adam Gajan, who fended off the 36 shots aimed at him, the team of Canadian hopeful Filip Mesar from Montreal won 3-0 against Switzerland in a preliminary round duel.
This puts them at the top of Group B with six points after defeating the Czechs from the start the day before.
A first-round pick by the Habs in the 2022 National League draft, Mesar recorded a third assist since the start of the tournament, contributing to Peter Repcik's goal in an abandoned cage with less than two minutes remaining.
As he moved into the opponent's zone, he made a clever feint in the first third that enabled Samuel Honzek to score the opening goal. Servac Petrovsky scored another goal for the winning goal.
Mesar and his gang have a meeting with Norway on Friday.
Another defeat for Finland
After a defeat in the first game against Canada, Finland suffered a second, this time more surprising, defeat against Germany 4-3.
However, the Scandinavian team fired a barrage of 43 shots towards the opposition net. However, German goalkeeper Philipp Dietl remained vigilant and blocked 40 of those shots. He was also named his team's player of the game.
In attack, Veit Oswald hit the goal twice, including the decisive goal in the middle of the second period, for the winning goal, accompanied by Niklas Hübner and Roman Kechter.
The answer came from Tommi Mannisto, Kasper Halttunen and Samu Bau.
Finnish goalkeeper Niklas Kokko had some difficulties, only stopping 24 of the 28 shots aimed at him.
Czech Republic without pity
Logic was respected in the Czech Republic-Norway duel as the Czechs beat their rivals 8-1.
Buffalo Sabers prospect Jiri Kulich and Seattle Kraken prospect Eduard Sale each scored three goals. Kulich also collected an assist. The winners' other goals were the work of Matyas Sapovaliv and Alex Cech. Matyas Melovsky had three assists.
Norway's only goal came through Johannes Lokkeberg's stick.
The Czech Republic fired 40 shots, while Norway fired just 21.
The Czech Republic thus achieved its first victory at this Junior World Championship after the defeat against Slovakia the day before. Norway lost twice.