Olympics: Slovakia Hands Italy Second Straight Loss

 

Team Slovakia kept their momentum rolling at Rho Arena on Friday, picking up their second straight Olympic win with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Italy. Slovakia relied on goals from Libor Hudáček, Matúš Súkeľ, and Adam Ružička to hold off a resilient Italian squad. Italy suffered their second consecutive loss despite goals from Matthew Bradley and Dustin Gazley. On Saturday, Slovakia looks to make it three in a row against a Sweden team hungry for a rebound after their 4-1 loss to Finland. Meanwhile, the Italians will face a tough task as they move on to play the Finns.

Italy Lineup:

DiGiacinto - Bradley - Gazley

Segafredo - Frycklund - Petan

Frigo - Mantenuto - Purdeller

Morini - Kostner - De Luca

Trivellato - Larkin

Zanatta - Pietroniro

Glira - Di Tomaso

Seed - Di Perna

Fadani

Clara

Slovakia Lineup:

Tatar - Ruzicka - Slafkovsky

Kelemen - Pospisil - Regenda

Liska - Dvorsky - Hudacek

Takac - Sukel - Okuliar

Fehervary - Nemec

Gernat - Cernak

Marincin - Ceresnak

Ivan - Cingel

Škorvánek

Hlavaj

Libor Hudáček took a pass from Juraj Slafkovsky, who got the puck from Dalibor Dvorsky, and Hudáček's centering pass intended for Tomas Tatar ended up going in off Alex Trivellato's right skate past Davide Fadani to open the scoring for Slovakia 1-0 early in the first period at 16:09. With 6:15 on the clock, Matúš Súkeľ made it 2-0, scoring on a rebound off Adam Liska's backhanded shot with a shot just above the crease. Matthew Bradley cut it to 2-1 with 2:54 to go in the opening frame when Dustin Gazley made a pass to Phil Pietroniro, whose shot ended up hitting the crossbar, and Bradley tapped in the loose puck past Stanislav Škorvánek.

After a scoreless middle frame, the game was nearly tied at 16:05 of the third period when Tommy Purdeller shot from the crease, but Škorvánek got over for a pad save after Mikael Frycklund's shot hit the right post and bounced off the Slovakia goaltender's back before falling to Purdeller for a chance. Adam Ruzicka extended the lead to 3-1 off a backhanded pass from Pavol Regenda, scoring from the slot at 8:06. With 3:35 to go, Gazley recorded his second point of the game when he pulled the Italians within 3-2 with Damian Clara pulled for an extra attacker. Thomas Larkin's one-timer struck the back of Giovanni Morini, going off Gazley's skate and into the back of the net. After the review showed there had been no distinct kicking motion, the goal was upheld.

Notes:

- Stanislav Škorvánek made a total of 20 saves for Slovakia.

- Before being pulled at 9:50 of the third period, Davide Fadani allowed two goals on 30 shots. Damian Clara took Fadani's place, making seven saves on eight shots in relief.

- Juraj Slafkovsky (2-2--4 in 2 GP) and Dalibor Dvorsky (1-2--3 in 2 GP) each recorded multi-point games in their first outing, going on to assist on the opening goal for Slovakia in this game against Italy.

- Pavol Regenda collected an assist on Slovakia's third goal of this game. In the 2025-26 NHL season, Regenda (8-1--9 in 16 GP) has recorded only one assist; however, with 15 games played or more this season, his 0.50 goal-per-game rate ranks first among rookies.

- Team Slovakia has opened an NHL-participating Olympics with back-to-back wins for the second time. At the 2006 Winter Games, they won their first five round-robin games before losing to Team Czechia in the playoff round.

- The only Olympic meeting between the two countries with NHL players came in the 1998 preliminary round, when Slovakia defeated Italy 4-3.

- Matthew Bradley scored on the power play to bring Team Italy within 2-1. A fifth-round pick by the Canadiens in 2015 (131st overall), Bradley has spent the past two seasons skating for HC Bolzano in Italy.

- Dustin Gazley picked up a goal and an assist.