When Slovakia became an independent country on the first of January 1993, they had to start over in division C of the World Hockey Championships. Just two years later, they were right back in the top division after winning first the C division before sweeping everyone else aside in the B division.
In their return to the A division, they finished 10th, but in just their fifth year there, they returned home to Bratislava with a silver medal from the 2000 World Championships in St. Petersburg. A mere two years after that came Slovakia's biggest achievement in hockey, when they fittingly beat the Russian team in the final to take the tournament.