Slovaks dominate in what no one wants to be the first in. And they are more attractive than the Czechs – WC 2023 – Hockey

Slovak ice hockey players have completed their first three matches at the World Championships. They got three points from the fights with the Czech Republic, home team Latvia and Canada. Perhaps more than many expected.

Slovaks attract people to the stands. But at the same time, they collect penalty minutes “most diligently”.

It’s a solid start to the tournament for Craig Ramsay’s men – especially considering they’re up against two heavy favorites and a host nation that’s eyeing a quarter-final place.

Five goals were enough for the team around captain Marek Hrivík for four points, while they conceded six times. By the way, so far, only once has it happened that the Slovakian goalkeeper pulled the puck out of the goal after an opponent’s power play (Škorvánka was beaten by Čech Sedlák with a decisive accurate shot).

The Slovaks are thus among the best teams in terms of defending weaknesses. Eleven of them have been played so far, ten survived unscathed.

They thus have a 90.91 percent success rate in defending against a numerical disadvantage.

However, a warning finger should also be raised. In terms of the number of accumulated penalty minutes, the Slovaks are the “best” among the sixteen participants in the championship (this was the case before the opening matches on Tuesday).

They have 78 penalty minutes. They are immediately followed by France (60), followed by Canada (34), Kazakhstan and Slovenia (22 each).

What is positive, however, is that the Slovak team is still attracting thousands of people to the stands. In terms of average attendance, it was included in the elite six, as fans from the Tatras came to Riga in large numbers.

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In the lead are the home team Finns with an average of almost 12,000 spectators per match. They are followed by Germans (9631), Swedes (9056), also domestic Latvians (8656), Americans (8439).

An average of 7,123 fans were curious about the Slovaks in the opening three duels directly in the Riga Arena.

Most of them – as expected – came to the duel with the co-hosts of the tournament (8930), the derby with the Czech Republic attracted 7800 people, the meeting with Canada was watched by 4640 spectators.

By the way, Czech Republic ranks ninth in fan interest with an average of 6,416 people per match.

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The Slovaks can improve their statistics next on Thursday, when they face the last of a series of strong opponents in the B-group.

From 7:20 p.m., they will face Switzerland, which scored ten goals in the first two duels (Norwegians and Slovenians), but did not concede a single one.