{"id":473920,"date":"2026-02-12T00:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T00:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/473920\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T00:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T00:07:15","slug":"puck-drops-on-mens-hockey-at-the-milan-cortina-olympics-with-nhl-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/473920\/","title":{"rendered":"Puck drops on men’s hockey at the Milan Cortina Olympics with NHL players"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN (AP) \u2014 Martin Fehervary was still catching his breath. Fresh off the ice from playing in the first men\u2019s hockey game at the Milan Cortina Olympics<\/a>, the defenseman from Slovakia knew he wasn\u2019t in North America anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pace of the game was really fast,\u201d Fehervary said. \u201cI felt like it was even faster than in the NHL.\u201d<\/p>\n

The return of the best players in the world to the Olympics got off to a frantic, fast-paced start Wednesday when Slovakia upset Finland<\/a> in the first of 30 games in the tournament<\/a> that will conclude with the gold medal final on Feb. 22. The NHL is participating in the Games for the first time in 12 years going back to Sochi in 2014, ending a long wait<\/a> for stars from all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad a tough time sleeping last night, and then just getting ready for this game,\u201d 35-year-old first-time Olympian Victor Hedman said after he scored an empty-net goal to help Sweden survive a scare from Italy and win 5-2<\/a>. \u201cPhenomenal. Nerves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy has no NHL players<\/a>, and yet the host country got off to quite the start against heavily favored Sweden. Homegrown winger Luca Frigo, put Italy up 1-0 just a few minutes into the game, sparking chants of \u201cItalia! Italia!\u201d from the excited crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was indescribable,\u201d captain Thomas Larkin said. \u201cThe support we got when we scored that first goal was absolutely unbelievable. It\u2019s something that I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll remember for a long, long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Bradley, a Vancouver native whose 95-year-old grandfather Guido Garzitto is from Italy, also scored after expressing motivation to show up in men\u2019s hockey and make the country proud against some tough competition. <\/p>\n

\u201cA once-in-a-lifetime amazing feeling,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cOverjoyed with emotions for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tournament favorites get underway Thursday. The U.S. faces Latvia, while Canada takes on Czechia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long process, but we\u2019re very excited to have a game,\u201d U.S. general manager Bill Guerin said. \u201cThe players are really looking forward to it. They need a game. They want a game. Just really looking forward to getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n

They got to sit and watch what it might be like to take center stage at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, which was nearly filled to the capacity of 11,600 by the time Finland\u2019s Anton Lundell and Slovakia\u2019s Adam Ruzicka lined up for the opening faceoff 20 minutes before 5 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n

The crowd roared in the opening moments when scoring chances materialized and gasped when Slovakia goaltender Samuel Hlavaj stopped a slap shot from point-blank range.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome,\u201d Hlavaj said after his team\u2019s 4-1 win. \u201cIt felt like we were playing at the home rink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juraj Slafkovsky<\/a> scored the first men\u2019s hockey goal in Milan for Slovakia just under eight minutes in, picking up where he left off<\/a> in Beijing four years ago. He scored again in the third period, setting off a boisterous crowd that was wired from the start and even at one point did the wave.<\/p>\n

More importantly than that, the fans were loud \u2014 and players noticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really expect anything like that (or) close it,\u201d Slovakia defenseman and two-time Stanley Cup champion Erik Cernak said. \u201cThey were amazing. It felt like we were playing at home. There was so many Slovakian fans and everybody, so I\u2019m glad they came here and supported us and hopefully we gave them a great show.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Winter Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN (AP) \u2014 Martin Fehervary was still catching his breath. Fresh off the ice from playing in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[212514,110809,241676,241673,64,63,240554,2065,586,241677,241674,241670,3915,2328,89584,241671,241668,241669,25054,575,82857,14932,23603,241675,224294,85,241672,4789],"class_list":{"0":"post-473920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","9":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","10":"tag-adam-ruzicka","11":"tag-anton-lundell","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-bill-guerin","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-czech-republic","17":"tag-erik-cernak","18":"tag-finland-olympic-team","19":"tag-guido-garzitto","20":"tag-hockey","21":"tag-italy","22":"tag-latvia","23":"tag-luca-frigo","24":"tag-martin-fehervary","25":"tag-matt-bradley","26":"tag-national-hockey-league","27":"tag-nhl","28":"tag-nhl-hockey","29":"tag-olympic-games","30":"tag-olympic-hockey","31":"tag-samuel-hlavaj","32":"tag-send-to-apple-news","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-thomas-larkin","35":"tag-victor-hedman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}