Team USA’s dream of an Olympic medal in men's ice hockey is over thanks to a shootout loss to Slovakia on Wednesday, and one former Buffalo Sabres star loves it.
That would be Miroslav Satan, who at age 47 is now the President and general manager of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation, and the man responsible for helping select the national team that advanced to the medal round with a 3-2 win over the previously undefeated Americans.
Moments after Slovak goalie Patrik Rybar stopped Team USA captain Andy Miele’s final shot in the shootout, Satan tweeted the following photo from behind Rybar’s goal:
Satan spent 14 years in the NHL, including parts of eight seasons with Sabres from 1997 to 2004, where he produced 456 points (224+232) in 578 games in Buffalo. From there, Satan went on to join the New York Islanders, where he played on Long Island for three seasons before brief stints with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins.
The native of Jacovce, Slovakia retired in 2014 after leaving the NHL and returning to Europe, and was elected President of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation in 2019.
Less than three years later, his team got a signature win over a USA squad that was the youngest in the tournament, and Slovakia now goes on with a chance for its first Olympic medal in ice hockey as an independent country.
Czechoslovakia, as a whole, won four bronze and four silver medals in hockey between 1920-92, the last a bronze in Albertville in ’92 months before the country split into two republics. The ice has been much more kind to the Czech Republic since; that country won gold in Nagano in 1998 and bronze in Torino in 2006, while Slovakia has only once reached the medal round (finishing fourth in 2010) and placed 11th in each of the last two Olympics.
Beijing looked to be a repeat of Sochi and Pyeongchang, as the Slovaks were 1-2 in pool play against Finland, Sweden, and Latvia, qualifying eighth for the championship tournament. However, they beat Germany 4-0 before topping Team USA in a shootout.
A seminal victory for Satan, who is no stranger to international success; he played in 180 games for his national team, helping Slovakia win four medals in the World Championships – including gold in 2002 – and he played in four Olympics, scoring nine goals in eight games in 1994 and captaining the teams that finished in the top-five in 2002 and 2006.
Slovakia will play Finland in one semifinal, while Sweden plays the Russian Olympic Committee in the other. In pool play, the Slovaks lost 6-2 to the Finns and 4-1 to the Swedes.
This tournament also marks just the second time since the switch to a tournament finale format in 1992 that neither Canada (who lost 2-0 to Sweden in the quarterfinals) nor the United States reached the medal round.
The previous occurrence was in 2006 in Torino, when the quarterfinals saw Canada lose to Russia and Team USA fall to Finland.
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