Kazakhstan lost against Switzerland yesterday in a game that turned out much closer than expected for the Swiss side, and eventually ended in a narrow 5-3-loss for the Kazakhs.
In the most recent episode of Habsent Minded, Patrik Bexell and I talked about how Slovakia probably is closer skillswise to Kazakhstan than the top three teams of the group. That, combined with yesterday’s experience and this game being the Slovaks’ first outing of the tournament, could provide us with another post-Christmas nail-biter.
Slovak coach Róbert Petrovický, former NHL journeyman with five different franchises, gave QMJHL goaltender Samuel Hlavaj the start in goal after a positive fall in Sherbrooke, where he has posted a .