Juraj Slafkovskis Blasts Referees and Team Performance After Loss to Germany at World Championship

Juraj Slafkovskis | Photo: Profimedia

Slovak hockey team forward Juraj Slafkovskis criticized the referees after the loss against Germany, and was disappointed with his team’s performance at the same time.

It has already been announced that Germany beat Slovakia 6-4 in the first game of the World Championship in Group B. If both teams remained “dry” in the first period, then the game with different formations changed the course of the match in the second period.

First, in the 10th minute of the third period, the German striker Dominik Kahun scored a goal in the majority of five to three, but the Slovaks, believing that the goalkeeper was obstructed, demanded a challenge. Although it looked like the goal wouldn’t count, it did and Germany took the lead, while Slovakia received another two-minute suspension for a failed challenge. Germany continued to use the majority again and doubled the lead.

🚨Dominik Kahun gets the first goal of #MensWorlds in Ostrava! 🇩🇪@deb_teams pic.twitter.com/24Jge229h6

— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 10, 2024

Slafkovskis, Slovakia’s young star, was upset about the scored goals, as well as the work of the referees in general – Slovakia earned 24, and Germany eight penalty minutes – who had two assists in this game. “These are the worst referees I have ever seen. But it’s nothing special, I’m used to it – it’s everywhere,” to the Swedish mediaViaplay” said the number one pick in the 2022 NHL draft.

“I don’t think the challenge was a risk [lai gan varējām atkal palikt mazākumā trīs pret pieci]. At the end of the day, if a player is standing in the goal area and crashes into the goal keeper, that’s a refereeing error in my opinion. But, unfortunately, the referees are bad absolutely everywhere,” he then also shared his dissatisfaction with the Slovak media expressed Slafkovsky.

“We weren’t good enough in the first two periods and then it’s hard to win. I don’t know why we didn’t catch the rhythm at first. We all have to get better for the next game, we all have to play together, in one system, not like we did today,” the forward looked back on the match.

“It was good to come back from 0-2 down quickly, but we conceded straight away again so it didn’t really mean anything. Maybe the third period was a little better,” it was difficult for Slafkovski to find the positive after the loss. “We have to play the full 60 minutes.”

Germany makes great use of opportunities and defeats Slovakia in the first game of the Latvian group