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The Slovaks dominated the opening 15 minutes, with Martin Kollar getting a great chance just 17 seconds in, but Justin Cruz kept them off the board until late in the period when Svitana scored his first of two on a blast from the point right off an attacking-zone faceoff. Then they made it 2-0 in the 20th minute when Dejneka’s off-balance shot from the top of the circle found the bottom corner of the net.
Things started getting chippy after that, with teams trading penalties the rest of the period, culminating in a fight between Eric Camara and Filip Titka, which started after a scrum around the net with Petrik’s goal stick coming up on Camara, who is Portugal’s top scorer in the tournament with seven points. Both Camara and Titka were ejected from the game, which was a further blow to the Portuguese.
Martinusik’s fourth goal of the tournament on a breakaway with 10:30 to play all but confirmed the victory for the Slovaks, as their fans celebrated the rest of the way, save for a period of time when the whole arena fell silent when Portugal’s Brian Creador was carried off on a stretcher following a nasty spill in the Slovak zone. Creador was one of several players that needed help off the ice in a physical contest.
As the time ticked down, the only question was whether Petrik would hold his second shutout of the tournament, and his team did a good job of keeping the ball away from his net the rest of the way, although Chris Cerqeuira did hit the goalpost with two minutes to play.
Svitana scored his second of the game into an empty net with a minute remaining, and the Slovak fans were on their feet the rest of the game. They’ll have more cheering to do In the semi-finals, where the Slovaks will face the winner of the quarter-final Czech Republic and India.
Reactions
Stanislav Petrik (goalkeeper, Team Slovakia): They didn’t score and they didn’t press us, so they tried everything to get the momentum on their side. I’m glad we stood up strong, resisted against those chances they had after the fight. All of our guys did an awesome job defensively. We tried to focus on ball hockey, that’s what we do, and if there are some other things, usually we’re not the instigators.
Alex Bovoletis (head coach, Team Portugal): This quarter-final is a disappointing finish, but our team played well during the tournament. As time went on, we were better and better. The match with Slovakia was very difficult and demanding for us, but I’m still proud. My guys gave 110 percent in Pardubice. They gave everything they had to the games, but of course our goal was the gold medal. Unfortunately, we lost the most important match, so the final will be without us.
