It wasn't a goal that would make the difference in a win or a loss, but it surely changed the stance of three countries as far as standing in group stage was concerned. The celebration seemed as if Slovakia had won the tournament. In fact, it only meant they lost by two, and that was all that mattered. Dalibor Dvorsky scored a power-play goal with 39 seconds remaining in the third period to pull Slovakia within two goals, and it was enough to cement first place in Group B in a 5-3 loss to Philip Broberg and Sweden at Milano Santagiulia IHO Arena in Milan, Italy on Saturday in preliminary play of the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. Sweden (2-0-1-0) needed to win the game by three goals to claim the top spot in the group and advance to the quarterfinal stage and a bye but Slovakia (2-0-1-0) will claim that spot after Finland (2-0-1-0) blasted the host country Italy, 11-0, to give Slovakia the first place finish, where it won't have to play now until Wednesday. Dvorsky was tied for a game high six shots on goal and was a minus-1 in 19:22 of ice time but scored the clutch goal to help win the group; the forward now has two goals and two assists in three games. Meanwhile Broberg, Dvorsky's St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis] teammate, had two shots on goal in 14:21 of ice time for the Swedes. Preliminary round play wraps up on Sunday before matchups are set for Tuesday's four qualification playoff games and quarterfinals go off Wednesday. The semifinals are on Friday before the bronze medal game to be played on Feb. 21 and the gold medal game on Feb. 22. Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/6b33c696-3ca2-47f4-8b0b-990f17face6a.jpeg] For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
