Slovakia is in a good spot to make a run at a medal.

By dispatching Latvia 5-0 on Monday at the 2025 IIHF World Men’s Under-18 Championship, Slovakia has clinched second place in Group A and a berth in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
 

 

 

 

 

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The Slovaks finished the preliminary round with two regulation wins, an overtime win and a loss, good for eight points, one ahead of third-place Finland.

In Monday’s game, Adam Nemec scored twice to lead Slovakia, Tomas Chrenko had two assists and Michal Pradel continued his impressive tournament in net, making 18 saves for the shutout.

"It was a really tough game but it ended up good for us," said Chrenko. "The Latvian players had good parts of the game but we managed it as a team and we got the win. We’re really happy to get second in the group and we deserved it."

Slovakia scored the lone goal of the first just 3:53 in. Andreas Straka made a nice drop pass to Tomas Chrenko, who sent the puck to the net right on the tape of Nemec, who re-directed the puck past Latvian goaltender Ivans Kufterins.

Michal Svrcek had a chance to make it 2-0 but lost the handle on the puck and missed a breakaway early in the second. Moments later, Matus Lisy’s point shot beat Kufterins but ringed the cross bar and it remained 1-0.

Slovakia finally got its second goal late in the middle frame when Martin Kalis jammed in a loose puck in the crease, a play that started with a great individual effort from defenceman Adam Kalman, who spun around a Latvian player at the blueline and drove the net for the scoring chance.

And though Slovakia only led 2-0 after 40 minutes, the Latvians didn’t generate many Grade A offensive chances to get back into the game.

"It’s a disappointing loss, of course," said Latvian captain Daniels Serkins. "I felt like we gave it our all but it wasn’t good enough. We have to get better in the defensive zone and we have to score goals. Without a goal in the game, you can’t win. We have to get those pucks in the net."

Nemec added his second of the game 58 seconds into the third to remove most doubt about the end result of this game. Chrenko got a helper on the goal to give him eight points in four games. He leads the Slovaks in points and moved past Canada’s Braden Cootes (perhaps just for the time being) into fourth place in tournament scoring.

Michal Capos blasted a slap shot from the point at 12:19 of the third to make it 4-0 Slovakia. Samuel Murin and Kristian Kriska assisted on Capos’ goal.

Latvia pulled its goaltender with over seven minutes left in the third to try and get back in the game but Tobias Tomik scored for Slovakia into the empty net. Patriks Plumins finished the game as Latvia's goaltender.
 
Slovakia has made it to the medal around each of the past two years, but both championships ended with the Slovaks losing the bronze-medal game. In 2023 the Slovaks lost the bronze game 4-3 in overtime to Canada and, in 2024, Slovakia was shut out 4-0 by Sweden. Slovakia has not medaled at this tournament since winning silver 22 years ago.

While Slovakia will now await its quarterfinal opponent, Latvia has to do some scoreboard watching. It currently sits in fourth place with two points, one ahead of Norway. The Norwegians can surpass Latvia for the final berth in the quarterfinals from Group A with a win in any fashion against Canada later today. If Canada wins, Latvia will move on to the quarters to play the United States and Norway will face Switzerland in the relegation game.

Serkins said he'll be paying close attention to the Canada-Norway game.

"Of course. Everything depends on that game," he said. "If Canada wins, then we’re through to the quarters. If not, we’re playing against Switzerland. Fingers crossed that luck is on our side and we just have to get ready for whatever game is next."