BRATISLAVA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Slovakia, which will host the Ice Hockey World Championship on May 10-26, lost their first warmup to reigning world champions Sweden 4-0 on Thursday.
Craig Ramsay, the Canadian-born coach of Slovakia's national team, faces a difficult task of compiling a roster that will be under enormous pressure from the home fans in May.
The preparations for the tournament are entering its final phase with only nine friendly matches left to be played for Team Slovakia. The Scandinavians brought a young team to test Ramsay's latest selection, aged 24 on average.
Daniel Zaar was left unattended in front of the home goalie Julius Hudacek in the fourth minute of the match and had no problems scoring the first goal.
The Slovaks failed to capitalize on their chances and the Swedes added two more goals in the second period by Viktor Svedberg and Dennis Rasmussen. Players of the Tre Kronor (three crowns) team were better in every aspect of the game and finished strong with Leon Bristedt putting in a late goal to set the final score at 4-0.
"We failed to keep up with our opponents in the beginning of the match. If we had scored early, it would have been a different match. I am satisfied with how we did on the powerplays, but we have to improve on our defense up high and most of all, score some goals," said Ramsay after the match.
Slovakia will meet Germany next week.
