{"id":172591,"date":"2026-02-10T23:39:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172591\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T23:39:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:39:30","slug":"san-jose-sharks-pavol-regenda-eyes-second-olympic-medal-for-slovakia-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172591\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks’ Pavol Regenda eyes second Olympic medal for Slovakia"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Jose Sharks forward Pavol Regenda<\/a> would love his second trip to the Winter Olympic Games<\/a> to go as well as his first.<\/a><\/p>\n

Regenda was part of a Slovakian team in 2022<\/a> that at first had modest expectations going into the Games in Beijing. But the NHL\u2019s withdrawal j<\/a>ust six weeks before the tournament began improved Slovakia\u2019s chances, and with some clutch performances, Regenda and his teammates captured the Bronze Medal, setting off parties and celebrations upon their return to Bratislava.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt like superstars, which we actually were at that time,\u201d Regenda said. \u201cIt was the first medal ever for Slovakia in hockey. We are forever in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regenda, listed at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds<\/a>, and his countrymen return to the Olympic stage again this week in Milan Cortina as Slovakia begins play in Group B<\/a> on Wednesday against Finland. They also play Italy on Friday and Sweden, with Sharks center Alex Wennberg, on Saturday<\/p>\n

Although Slovakia, which has eight players in the NHL, will be hard-pressed to win another medal \u2014 especially with players from the league<\/a> back in the tournament \u2014 Regenda feels anything is possible, especially once the knockout stage begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty quick. It\u2019s three games in a group,\u201d said Regenda, who has nine points in 16 games with the Sharks this season. \u201cYou have to win one (qualification round game) to advance, and then if you win one (quarterfinal) game, like we did (in 2022), you\u2019re suddenly playing in the top four.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you lose, you still can win a bronze medal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regenda, 26, is a native of Michalovce, a city of around 40,000,<\/a> located about an hour\u2019s drive from Ukraine\u2019s far western border. In the spring of 2022, the undrafted Regenda was still playing in the Slovakian league for Michalovce Dukla when he got the opportunity to play for his country in the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Regenda, Montreal Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd<\/a> and New Jersey Devils defenseman Simon Nemec are the only three players from that Olympic team still in the NHL. Slafkovsk\u00fd and Nemec went first and second overall to the Canadiens and Devils, respectively, in the 2022 draft.<\/p>\n

Slovakia went 1-2 in group play but beat Germany 4-0 in the qualification round to advance to the quarterfinals, where they played the United States, coached by former Sharks bench boss David Quinn. Regenda assisted on a first-period goal by Slafkovsky before Slovakia scored late in the third period to tie the game.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose Sharks Pavol Regenda (84) smiles after being honored for being on the Slovakia roster for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan before a game against the New York Rangers at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a scoreless overtime, forward Peter Cehlarik\u00a0scored the lone goal in a five-round shootout as Slovakia advanced to the semifinals.<\/p>\n

Slovakia then lost to Finland in the semifinals, but in a considerable upset, beat Sweden 4-0 in the Bronze Medal game, with Regenda scoring late in the third period to seal the victory. Slovakia had lost to Sweden 4-1 in group play, but had an extra day of rest before the Bronze Medal game<\/a> after the Swedes lost to Russia in the semifinals the day before<\/p>\n

\u201cWe crushed them,\u201d Regenda said of the Swedish team. \u201cWe had a better schedule than they had, so it was fortunate for us. A bronze medal, nobody\u2019s asking how. It\u2019s going to always be in our memories. Nobody\u2019s going to take a bronze medal from you, and hopefully we can repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regenda certainly won\u2019t forget the ensuing celebration back home, as the players were paraded around Bratislava before going on stage in front of thousands of fans in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great. You\u2019re standing up there, and all the people are cheering for you,\u201d Regenda said. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty well known back home as hockey players. It was a big thing for Slovakia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regenda grew up idolizing other Slovakian stars like Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, and Zdeno Chara. Now he and other Slovakians in the NHL will once again have all eyes on them, with several of the team\u2019s supporters and members of Regenda\u2019s family making the trip to Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of rewarding that now that the kids are looking up to us, and we are kind of idols for them,\u201d Regenda said. \u201c(It) sounds really crazy, but it is like that. We are heroes back at home for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks forward Pavol Regenda would love his second trip to the Winter Olympic Games to go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,401,402,181,404,10012,88,90,89,98,198,403,200,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-172591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-inside-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-olympics","15":"tag-san-jose","16":"tag-san-jose-headlines","17":"tag-san-jose-news","18":"tag-san-jose-sharks","19":"tag-santa-clara-county","20":"tag-sharks-alert","21":"tag-south-bay","22":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}