In a group with gold medal contenders Sweden and Finland, it's Slovakia that rank first after two games.
Slovakia's men's Olympic hockey team ranks first in Group B after Friday's win, ahead of Finland, Sweden and Italy.
Slovakia beat Italy 3-2, while Finland won 4-1 over rivals Sweden in matinee action in Milan.
That means the Slovaks are the only squad to win twice so far in the group, with Finland and Sweden each winning once and losing once, both in regulation.
Because regulation wins count for three points, overtime wins are worth two, overtime losses are worth one and regulation losses are worth none, Team Slovakia needs just one more point to finish above the others in the group and get a bye to the quarterfinals. That would be pretty significant, considering Sweden and Finland are among the top contenders for a gold medal at these Olympics.
Slovakia defeated Finland 4-1 on Wednesday in the first game of the Olympic men's hockey tournament. Montreal Canadiens left winger Juraj Slafkovsky had two goals and an assist in the opener.
Slafkovsky added another assist on Libor Hudacek's goal early in the second period to give Slovakia a 1-0 lead over Italy. After Matus Sukel made it 2-0 about 10 minutes later, Italy's Matt Bradley scored his second of the tournament to cut the deficit to one.
Slovakia's Adam Ruzicka, however, scored his second of these Olympics past the halfway mark of the third period to give his team a 3-1 lead.
Although the Italians scored again and battled hard, just like they did in their 5-2 loss to Sweden on Wednesday, they fell short by one goal on Friday and will not qualify for a bye to the quarterfinals, instead heading to the qualifying playoff round.
But because Italy scored twice in their first game, Sweden have an even goal differential after two games, just like Finland. Slovakia, meanwhile, have a plus-4 goal differential.
Goal differential is one of the criteria for determining who finishes higher in the overall standings, following group position and number of points. If that's all even, then it's goals-for and better IIHF world ranking that are the final tiebreakers.
The top four teams overall get a bye to the quarterfinals, meaning Sweden would be at risk of having to play in the qualifying round if they don't beat Slovakia on Saturday due to their goal differential.
Slovakia and Sweden play at 6:10 a.m. ET on Saturday, while Finland and Italy face off at 10:40 a.m. ET.
Correction: An earlier version of the story had incorrect scenarios for winning Group B. We apologize for the error.
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