Regenda, Slovakia cruise against Germany in Olympic quarterfinals

MILAN -- The surprising third-seeded Slovaks surged into the semifinals of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 with a 6-2 win against Team Germany at Santagiulia Arena in the first of four quarterfinal-round games Wednesday.

Team Slovakia is in the semifinals with seven NHL players on its 25-man roster.

"Coming to the tournament, seeing the rosters every team brought, they have really strong NHL guys and we are just a small country with a couple guys in the NHL, so it's a huge thing," Slovakia forward Pavol Regenda said. "The team matters and we proved every game we played from the first to the last guy, we worked our [butts] off. We proved to the world even a small country like us can be in the top four."

Regenda had two goals and an assist, Dalibor Dvorsky and Oliver Okuliar each had a goal and an assist, and Samuel Hlavaj made 25 saves to lead Slovakia, which has earned the opportunity to play for its first medal in an Olympics involving NHL players.

The semifinals are Friday, with Slovakia to play the United States.

"We knew if we were going to play as a unit together, we could accomplish something," defenseman Erik Cernak said. "The Slovakian mentality is like that. If we're going for something, we're putting all in for it. I'm just happy we did it and it's still not done. We still have two more games. We have to focus on that and let's see how it's going to go."

GAMECENTER SUMMARY: Germany-Slovakia

The Slovaks, who won the bronze medal in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, are in the semifinals of an Olympics featuring NHL players for the second time. They also made it in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics after defeating Team Sweden 4-3 win in the quarterfinals.

Slovakia lost to Team Canada in the semifinals and to Team Finland in the bronze medal game in Vancouver.

"It's big for our country," said forward Juraj Slafkovsky, who scored seven goals and was named MVP of the Olympics in 2022. "It's big for all of our fans. I'm super excited to go back to the semifinals after four years again in an even bigger tournament. Great opportunity for us. We have to make sure we're prepared. We've got to play good and wherever it takes us it'll take us there."

Lukas Reichel had a goal and an assist, and Frederik Tiffels scored for Germany. Philipp Grubauer made 29 saves in his second start in as many days after he made 30 saves in a 5-1 win against Team France in the qualification round Tuesday.

Leon Draisaitl had an assist on Reichel's goal to finish the tournament with seven points (two goals, five assists), the most by a German player in an Olympics involving NHL players.

Germany is 0-2 in the quarterfinals of Olympic tournaments involving NHL players. It also lost to Team USA 5-0 in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

"Very disappointed because I think it was like, that was a big lottery ticket we kind of tossed away today," Germany defenseman Moritz Seider said. "Very manageable opponent. But if you don't do the things right, you don't deserve to play in the semis, and that's what happened today. I think they just outplayed us, especially in the second, and then we kind of fell apart."

WATCH: Men's Hockey Highlights from the Olympic Winter Games

Slovakia dominated the first period, having an 18-5 advantage in shots on goal, and got rewarded when Regenda, the San Jose Sharks forward, made it 1-0 lead at 18:06, scoring on a netfront deflection Cernak's one-timer from the right point that was set up by Martin Fehervary.

"Huge goal," Slovakia captain Tomas Tatar said. "We felt like we were pushing but things can turn either way real fast. I think we deserved that goal, but it could easily have been 0-0. One of the things we said is we have to remain calm and whatever the score will be, we have to push and push and stick with our gameplan what we have to do. Luckily, we were on the top, we led the whole game and obviously that's a little easier at the end."

The Slovaks had a scare early in the second period, when Slafkovsky of the Montreal Canadiens fell awkwardly into the boards after taking a hit. He briefly stayed on the ice before slowly going to the bench.

But as he sat on the bench holding an ice pack to the back of his neck, Slovakia scored twice in 33 seconds.

Milos Kelemen made it 2-0 at 4:01. He won a race to the puck against Lukas Kalble, getting inside position to gain possession low in the left face-off circle. He quickly roofed a backhanded shot to the far side over Grubauer's glove.

Okuliar scored on a breakaway at 4:34 to make it 3-0, causing Germany to use its timeout before the ensuing face-off.

"Wonderful ice," Slafkovsky said. "Ice pack fixes everything and I think I'm going to put an ice pack on my neck next game too and I hope that we score two goals."

Slovakia kept the pressure on and Dvorsky made it 4-0 at 10:21. He created a 2-on-1 by chipping the puck off the boards between the benches to himself. Dvorsky kept it and beat Grubauer to extend the lead.

"When they get 2-on-1s, when they get 3-on-2s, they make those skilled plays and are super good finishing," Germany forward JJ Peterka said. "So, definitely super dangerous."

Reichel scored on a one-timer from Draisaitl to cut Slovakia's lead to 4-1 at 14:59, but the Slovaks regained the four-goal lead 58 seconds into the third period when Regenda scored his second of the game from between the circles to make it 5-1.

Regenda celebrated by tugging on his jersey to show the Slovakian logo on his chest.

"It's what came to me in the moment," Regenda said.

Tiffels cut the deficit to 5-2 on the power play at 9:09 of the third period with a one-timer from the right circle, but Tatar scored an empty-net goal off a 3-on-1 rush to make it 6-2 at 16:33.

"We have so much talent, so many hard-working guys that if everyone gives 100 percent, we can win against every team," Slovakia forward Martin Pospisil said. "We are excited for another game."

NOTES: Dvorsky has six points (three goals, three assists) in the tournament, the most points by an NHL rookie in a single Olympics. He has at least a point in all four of Slovakia's games. … It was the first win for Slovakia against Germany in an Olympic tournament involving NHL players. Germany won in the qualifying round in Salt Lake City in 2002 (3-0), and in the consolation round in Nagano in 1998 (4-2).