Last year was a hard one to figure out for the Slovak U18 team, which lost four straight games on home ice in Trenčín at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup but then finished fourth at the IIHF U18 World Championship in Switzerland.
On Saturday, Slovakia named the 24 players they’re taking to the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton, which features four returnees from last year’s squad: forwards Ján Chovan, Andreas Straka, Michal Svrček and Tobias Tomík. And despite missing two of their better 2007-born players in defensemen Vladimír Dravecký and Luka Radivojevič (for different reasons), they have a fair bit of optimism about this season.
“I’m really looking forward to the Hlinka Gretzky Cup,” said Svrček, who plays in Sweden for Brynäs. “It will be a high-quality tournament that will feature the best teams from around the world and it’ll be a good test before the new season. We have a strong (2007) year, so we also have high goals. We will go all out in every game and see what happens in the end.”
Before the team was chosen, the Slovaks played two games against Ukraine and won 13-1 and 15-1. The wins were expected, but the coaching staff and management were more concerned about finer details.
“The games against Ukraine showed us that we are well prepared physically,” said coach Martin Dendis. “The pre-tournament games had a conditioning character and, at the same time, we saw the basic structures and principles we’re working on. We have to continue to work on improving special teams, face-offs and other details of the game.”
The Slovaks fly overseas on Tuesday, July 30 and play two pre-tournament games against Canada and the USA before starting their tournament on August 5 against Sweden. They also have group-stage games against Canada and Switzerland.
Goaltenders (3): Roberto Leonardo HENRIQUEZ (Slovan Bratislava), Michal PRÁDEL (MHK Dolný Kubín), Patrik BREZÁNI (HKM Zvolen).
Defensemen (8): Patryk ZUBEK (Barani Banská Bystrica), Patrik RUSZNYÁK, Tomáš TOMAŠKOVIČ (both Slovan Bratislava), Michal Jozef TKÁČ (HC Košice), Matúš LISÝ (HK Nitra), Adam GOLJER (Dukla Trenčín), Adrian RAŠKA (Vlci Žilina), Michal ČAPOŠ (AIK Stockholm, SWE).
Forwards (13): Lukáš TOMKA (Barani Banská Bystrica), Tomáš CHRENKO (HK Nitra), Adam NEMEC (HK Nitra), Samuel MURIN (HK ŠKP Poprad), Andreas STRAKA (HK ŠKP Poprad), Martin KALIS, Timothy KAZDA, Tobias TOMÍK (all Dukla Trenčín), Alex MIŠIAK (HKM Zvolen), Pavol MORÁVEK (Nordic Hockey Academy, AUT), Ján CHOVAN (Tappara Tampere, FIN), Michal SVRČEK (Brynäs IF, SWE), Adam SALOŇ (South Kent School, USA).
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