Just like on Thursday, Kazakhstan and Slovakia won their respective games in regulation on Friday. That paves the way for a winner-takes-all showdown in the concluding game of the 2024 Men’s Final Olympic Ice Hockey Qualification Group D in Bratislava on Sunday. The Kazakhs edged Austria 2-1, while host Slovakia beat Hungary 7-3, getting goals from seven different scorers.
Kazakhstan 2 Austria 1 (1-0, 0-0, 1-1)
After back-to-back 2-1 defeats, Austria’s hopes of advancing to the 2026 Winter Olympics are kaput. In this game, the Austrians outshot Kazakhstan 46-22, but once again, Kazakh goalie Andrey Shutov was lights out.
“Outstanding,” Kazakhstan's Tamirlan Gaitamirov said of Shutov. “He’s kept us in it. It’s been a total team effort, but I’d call him the hero of these two games.”
“We knew it was going to be a hard tournament against really good opponents,” said veteran Austrian winger Peter Schneider. “I think we’ve played two pretty good games but we couldn’t finish, we couldn’t score, and that was the main issue.”
The Austrians fell behind just 1:45 in. Defenceman Dmitri Breus, who had two points against Hungary, let go a wrister from the blue line that changed directions and fooled when it grazed the shaft of David Reinbacher's stick and fooled netminder David Kickert.
The Kazahs then had a chance to go up by a pair on the power play, but Austria's Vinzenz Rohrer got a shorthanded breakaway, got hooked from behind, and was awarded a penalty shot. On his attempt, Rohrer faked forehand and moved to his backhand, but Shutov stayed with him and denied the shot.
Early in the second period, Austrian captain Manuel Ganahl was robbed by Shutov. A few minutes later, the Kazahs had their best chance of the middle frame when Kickert stopped Roman Starchenko and Nikita Mikhailis in succession in close.
Through two periods, Austria outshot Kazakhstan 26-16 but continued to trail 1-0.
Finally, the Austrians broke through at 2:31 of the third period. Ganahl won a battle for the puck along the boards and Rohrer made a cross-ice pass to a wide-open Raphael Herburger, who found the near side before Shutov could slide across.
Having already lost a game, the Austrians really needed to win this one in regulation time, and they continued to gamble. But with under eight minutes to play, Kazakhstan controlled the puck off an attacking-zone faceoff win by Artyom Likhotnikov, and much like the first Kazkah goal, Gaitamirov’s shot from the point through a screen found the net to restore the lead.
“The boys just got the puck up to the blue line, and I just made a shot, got it through the first guy and it went in,” Gaitamirov said. “All five guys scored the goal. The first guy won the faceoff, the second guy gave me the pass, the third guy screened the goalie. It was a team effort, like always.”
As in the 2-1 opening loss to Slovakia, Kickert went to the bench for a sixth attacker in the dying minutes and the Austrians pushed hard for the equalizer, but time simply ran out. Austria last played Olympic men's hockey in 2014, and will now have to set its sights on the 2030 Winter Games in France instead.
Hungary 3 Slovakia 7 (1-1, 0-2, 2-4)
Once again, the host Slovaks answered Kazakhstan’s regulation win with one of their own. This one stayed close for more than hafl the game, but the Slovaks eventually pulled away to beat their southern neighbours 7-3. In a balanced attack, Slovakia got goals from seven different players, with Marek Hrivik and Lukas Cingel recording two points, apiece.
“The first half of the game was close, but we worked as a team and we started scoring,” said winger Pavol Regenda, who scored the eventual winner early in the third period. “Every line worked so hard the whole game to get every goal, and it’s great that we can move on to the next game with the confidence that we know we can score.”
The game began at a frenetic pace, with each team scoring on the power play in the first five minutes.
First it was Hungary at 3:16, with Balasz Varga setting up a one-timer from Henrik Nilsson that beat Samuel Hlavaj. Slovakia answered less than a minute later when Simon Nemec’s shot missed the net, but hit the end boards and bounced out in front, where Marek Hrivik tapped it in. As the net was dislodged at the same time, there was a brief video review, but the tying goal was quickly confirmed.
In the 13th minute, two Hungarian penalties eight seconds apart gave the Slovaks an extended 5-on-3. They were unable to convert, although Libor Hudacek was robbed by Adam Vey and Robert Lantosi hit the post.
Slovakia took control in the second period and scored twice.
Five minutes into the middle frame, Adam Sykora pounced on a turnover in the Hungarian zone, and two quick passes later the puck was on the stick of Matus Sukel, who backanded it through Vay’s legs. Then just after stepping out of the penalty box, Martin Pospisil found Lukas Cingel in full flight down the right wing. After carrying the puck into the Hungarian zone, he found Mario Grman going to the net, who only needed to re-direct the puck past Vay at 16:55.
Two late-period Slovak penalties 51 seconds apart did give the Hungarians a lengthy 5-on-3, but they never seriously threatened offensively.
Six goals were scored in the third period – including four in a span of 1:56 – as Slovakia went up by three goals and twice Hungary narrowed the gap again. Pavol Regenda, Hudacek, Tomas Tatar and Lantosi did the damage for Slovakia, while Istvan Bartalis got both Hungarian markers.
Looking ahead to Kazakhstan, Regenda said: “We’ve played them the last two years at the Worlds, so we know what they’re capable of. They have a lot of guys from the KHL – they have good players and they’ve won both games, so we have to be prepared.”
Slovakia has played at every Winter Olympics since debuting as an independent nation in Lillehammer 1994. Now it's time to see if the Slovaks can keep that streak alive.