Team Europe with six Slovaks on the roster lost the second game of the best of three final series against Canada 1:2 at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, in Toronto, Canada on Thursday. Slovak defenceman Zdeno Chára opened the score list of the game in the first period. The Europeans were less than three minutes away from forcing game 3. However in the 58th minute the Canadians tied the game in power play and less than a minute before the end of the regulation time, scored a short-handed game-winning goal. In spite of this loss in a really close final game, Zdeno Chára was happy to have competed at the tournament.
TI Chara
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Said Chára. Thus, the international team ended second, surprising ice-hockey analysts and also the public, as they had been considered an underdog before the beginning of the tournament. Except for losing against Canada in the finals and in the group stage, the Europeans defeated all their opponents in the remaining games at the World Cup. The team consisted of seven nationalities: Austrian, French, German, Norwegian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swiss. The Slovak players led the team with at least one Slovak scoring a goal in each game of the tournament. Moreover, goalie Jaroslav Halák was in the net throughout the entire tournament with the Swiss coach Ralph Krueger not having any reason to replace him.
