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You entered the tournament as the defending champions and managed to win. Do you think it was critical to win this one?
Of course we wanted to win the opening game and kick off the tournament with three points. We succeeded and that’s good. We started the game well and the first period was better from our side than from the opposition. That’s where the game was decided.
However, it wasn’t an easy win. Is it better for you to have faced one of the strongest teams already in the first game?
That’s hard to say. Nowadays, there are lots of really good teams. The guys from India play ball hockey in Canada and they’re on a world-class level.
You built up your lead in first 15 minutes, then it was goalless for the rest of the game. Was that your plan after the early lead?
No, we wanted to score more goals and make the margin bigger; we had plenty of chances to do so. On the other hand, India was tough, they played hard until the end and tried to get back into the game. That would have been a big boost for them, but fortunately we kept the gap at two goals.
The Second period was more aggressive, there were some conflicts and lots of penalties. Did you expect that?
I was saying that a lot of them come from Canada. That is their style, they are tough to play against and we took some penalties, but in the end I think we did well and stayed focused until the end.
What are your goals for the tournament? For sure a third consecutive gold would be special.
Even though it´s still the first day, we all have one goal on our mind. We want the hat-trick and I hope we get it.
You play ice hockey for Poprad as a pro. For you, is ball hockey just a supplementary sport or is it on the same level?
Ball hockey is supplemental, for sure. My team is currently in the first phase of their off-ice pre-season drills, so I took some more days off. This may be as good training as the drills in the end.