Jaroslav Halak was strong in goal for Slovakia, and will lead his team into a bronze medal matchup with Finland.
(AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
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Jaroslav Halak and his Slovak teammates took down the mighty Russians. They then knocked out the slick Swedes. Their minds were on a three-peat against the powerful Canadians.
It wouldn’t come to pass, as the Habs netminder and his countrymen came close but fell 3-2 to Canada in semifinal action. Slovakia will now face former Canadiens captain Saku Koivu and Team Finland for a chance at bronze.
As he’s done throughout the tournament – and the season – Halak made the saves until his team found its legs...and some offence.
The host squad staked out a 2-0 lead in the first period on a pair of deflections that fooled the first-time Olympian. Canada added a power play marker in the third; Halak finished his night’s work with 25 saves.
He finally got some goal support in the third period with both goals coming just three and a half minutes apart. And, as time ticked away, the Bratislava native watched from the bench as his teammates pressured for the equalizer while many Canadians dealt with gnawed fingernails and elevated heart rates.
Slovak veteran Pavol Demitra came close to sending his country to the gold medal game but was denied by NHL teammate Roberto Luongo.
Halak and Co. will have little time to rest ahead of their bronze medal matchup; his quest for hardware goes Saturday night at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT.
Medal or not, Halak will return from the tournament having played a big part of his country’s best ever finish at a Winter Olympics since it became its own nation in 1993. Slovakia wound up in sixth place in 1994, before NHL players were available to their countries. In those years since, a young Halak saw the upstart hockey nation skate to disappointing finishes. Perhaps none were more so than the 13th place result in 2002 when the Slovaks failed to qualify with much of their roster coming from the NHL and thus not able to join the team before the medal round.
Not helping matters over those years was the lack of efficient netminding, a hole on their roster that has been plugged thanks to Halak. The 24-year-old has posted a 3-2 record in the six games he's played, to go with a 2.14 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.
No strangers to what he's capable of, his Canadiens teammates will be looking for that to continue when the schedule resumes next week.
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