Slovakia Dominates Germany 6-2 in Olympic Quarterfinals Behind Pavol Regenda's Two Goals

Slovakia delivered a dominant performance Wednesday at Santagiulia Arena, defeating Germany 6-2 in the first Olympic quarterfinal game to punch their ticket to the semifinals. The third-seeded Slovaks controlled play from start to finish, outshooting Germany 18-5 in the opening period and never allowing the Germans to establish momentum.Pavol Regenda led the offensive charge for Slovakia with two goals and an assist. The San Jose Sharks forward opened the scoring at 18:06 of the first period, deflecting Erik Cernak's one-timer from the right point past Philipp Grubauer to give his country an early advantage.While Regenda was a big part of their dominance, their defense was equally good. Goalie Samuel Hlavaj made 25 saves in goal for Slovakia, which advances to Friday's semifinals to face an opponent yet to be determined.Slovakia broke the game open in the second period despite a brief scare when Juraj Slafkovsky fell awkwardly into the boards after taking a hit. The Montreal Canadiens forward left the ice slowly and sat on the bench with an ice pack on his neck while his teammates extended the lead.Milos Kelemen made it 2-0 at 4:01, roofing a backhand shot over Grubauer's glove after winning a race to the puck. Just 33 seconds later, Oliver Okuliar scored on a breakaway to push the advantage to 3-0, forcing Germany to use its timeout.Dalibor Dvorsky continued his impressive tournament at 10:21, creating a 2-on-1 rush and beating Grubauer to make it 4-0. The rookie now has six points in the tournament, the most by an NHL rookie in a single Olympic tournament.Lukas Reichel scored on a one-timer from Leon Draisaitl late in the second period to cut the deficit to 4-1. Slovakia regained its four-goal cushion when Regenda scored his second goal 58 seconds into the third period. Frederik Tiffels briefly made it 5-2 before Tomas Tatar added an empty-netter to seal the 6-2 final.The victory represents Slovakia's second appearance in the semifinals of an Olympics featuring NHL players. They also reached the semifinals at the 2010 Vancouver Games before losing to Canada and Finland.Draisaitl finished the tournament with seven points, the most by a German player in an Olympics with NHL participation. Germany falls to 0-2 all-time in Olympic quarterfinals featuring NHL players, having also lost to the United States in 2002.Slovakia won bronze at the 2022 Beijing Olympics but will now compete for their first medal in an Olympic tournament featuring the world's best professional players.