Slovakia wins Slovakia Cup 2011

A very strong team what the Slovakia coach Glen Hanlon prepared for the Slovakia Cup, with the really best of Slovak players with contracts in Europe including names like Jozef Stümpel, wins both games – they beat Germany 4-1 at first in a semifinal game and one day later they allowed no goals to the Swiss in a 2-0 victory in the final game.

But the Slovaks aren’t overrating a Slovakia Cup victory, they know, that the main event of the season is yet to come. They just described their feelings from each game and what do they think about the current state of the arena: "It was a really great preparation for upcoming World Championships, but still lots of time is remain before the first game, the end of the club season is waiting on us first,” the scorer of the Slovakia Cup winning goal Richard Zedník said.

"Of course the arena is not fully prepared for the WC, but I adverted no defects during the games. The atmosphere in the arena was really good, we heard crowds well, I’m looking forward to the atmosphere when the arena will be fully sold-out during WC”, he told in link to the fact, that the under-construction arena capacity was cut-down to a number of just 2,000 fans.

The entire crowd exploded in elevation after the final whistle of the final game, but during the first two periods of match the Swiss team was better than their hosts, the shots summary after the first was 10:24 for the players from the Alpine foothill. But the second period brought the first penalties and the game picture became more even-tempered. Slovaks had already a two-man power play in the second half of the second period, but they waited till the one-man power play in the 51st minute to take the lead. The Swiss tried to equalize the score really hard, but before they could pull the goaltender, they enchased for the second time in the 59th minute from Marcel Hossa’s stick. It was the end of Swiss hope for the victory and the team, which qualified for the finals with a 1-3 victory over Belarus, won the silver.

The Belarusians challenged Germany for the bronze medal game just few hours before the big finale of the tournament. The Germans found the goal answer on the Belarusians’ lead twice: Buchweiser equalized the score after Yefimenko‘s game-opener from the sixth minute and Alexander Weiss tied the game again in 30:37 when the score was 1:2 because of a Belarusian’s used power play. The game count was tied after two periods of the game, but in the third, Belarusian’s added another two goals. Because the referees disclaimed two German goals in the third, the Belarusians carried away the third place.

The final standings:
1.    Slovakia
2.    Switzerland
3.    Belarus
4.    Germany

Games summary:
Semi final 1: Belarus - Switzerland 1:3 (0:0, 0:2, 1:1)
Goals: 27. Ambühl, 31. Brunner, 43. Rüthemann - 60. Ryadinski
Penalties: 5:6, Powerplay goals: 0:1. Referees: Müllner, Ország - Orolín, Valach. 2000 spectators (sold-out).

Semi final 2: Slovakia - Germany 4:1 (0:0, 2:1, 2:0)
Goals: 33. Surový (Rudolf Huna, Ölvecký), 37. Stehlík (Rudolf Huna, Vydarený), 42. Lintner (Mikúš, Marcel Hossa), 44. Zedník (Baranka, Stümpel) - 38.Mauer (Hager, Flaake).
Penalties: 3:4, PP goals: 1:0. Referees: Baluška, D. Konc - M. Novák, J. Tvrdoň. 2000 spectators (sold-out).

Bronze medal game: Germany – Belarus 2:4 (1:1, 1:1, 0:2)
Goals: 16. Buchweister (Fischer, P. Reimer), 31. Weiss (Hördler, P. Reimer) - 6. Jefimenko, 25. Kislyj (Denisov), 45. Pavlovič (Denisov), 56. Demagin (Riadinskij, Stasenko).
Penalties: 12:6, + Hager 10 min. - Stas game misconduct, Denisov 10 min. PP goals: 0:2, Referees: D. Konc, Müllner - T. Orolin, Stano, 1500 spectators.

Gold medal game: Slovakia - Switzerland 2:0 (0:0, 0:0, 2:0)
Goals: 51. Zedník (Surový, Podhradský), 59. Marcel Hossa (Bartečko, Cibák).
Penalties: 3:4, PP goals: 1:0, Referees: Baluška, Ország - M. Novák, Valach. 2000 spectators (sold-out).

 

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