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It was the night of the 11th May 2002, a night to remember, and a night when the Slovak Nation celebrated as one. The national team had defeated Russia 4-3 in the final of the Ice Hockey World Championships in Gothenburg, and Slovakia, for the first time in their nine-year history, had become world champions. What a night to be in Slovakia, with town squares up and down the country full of jubilant people, young and old, partying until late into the night. I would have loved to have soaked up the joyous atmosphere in the nation's capital, as thousands flocked to the SNP square, waving flags, singing victory songs, and saluting Peter Bondra, Miroslav Satan, Jan Lasak, and the rest of their magnificent heroes.
Of course, as circumstances would have it, I wasn't in Slovakia at all that night. Instead, my wife and I had an early night in a fine hotel, in a quiet Czech spa town, close to the border with Germany.
I don't think I had ever watched an Ice Hockey match before I saw Slovakia's first game against Poland, in the preliminary group stages. You see Ice Hockey isn't really played in the UK, perhaps it is because there's not enough snow there, but anyway whatever the reason it's about as popular as cricket is in the States. However, by the time Slovakia had safely reached the knockout phase of the tournament, Ice Hockey had a new British fan, I was well and truly hooked.
As I didn't know my power play from my face off, the first couple of games were spent trying to fathom the rules. My father-in-law diligently tried to explain them to me, and despite my poor Slovak, I soon picked them up. What I found more difficult though was keeping pace with the puck. I was convinced that the Slovak commentator must see the game a few seconds in advance, as he would shout "goal", while I was still lost down the other end of the pitch. By and by though my eyes became accustomed to the speed, and by the second period of the second game against Finland, I pretty much knew what was going on.
It was about this time that I witnessed my first Ice Hockey fight. It was a fully-fledged fist fight that, had it been a soccer match, would have seen the two participants banned from the sport for a season or two. I was quite amazed to find that bashing the living daylights out of your opponent only warrants a 14-minute punishment in the sport of Ice Hockey. Unfortunately, it was our star player, Peter Bondra, who was penalized, and without him for 14 minutes of the game, Slovakia ended up losing their second match of the tournament to Finland, by 3 goals to 1.
As it turned out, the loss to Finland would be the only loss of the tournament for Slovakia, who then proceeded to soundly beat Ukraine, Sweden and Russia in the remaining qualifying games. So on to the knockout stages, where Slovakia would face Canada, one of the pre-tournament favorites.
Now that things were getting more exciting, it wasn't just my father-in-law and I that watched the game, but the whole family, and we now watched it in our local hostinec, on a big screen. This was to soak up the atmosphere, for what we realistically thought would be Slovakia's final game. The quarterfinal game against Canada was superb, probably the most exciting of the whole tournament. Although playing the better hockey, Slovakia soon found herself two goals to nil down to the reigning Olympic champions.
The locals within the hostinec were not at all pleased with their team, the opposition team, and in particular the referee, and I certainly learnt a few new Slovak expletives that night. However, towards the end of the second period, when most of us were resigned to the fact that we were going to lose, Petra Bondra suddenly performed some inspirational play, culminating in the goal of the tournament. With the score at 2-1, with twenty minutes to play, Slovakia was still in with a chance. The final period of the game was tense to say the least. Slovakia's captain Miroslav Satan scored a fine goal to bring the game level, and then Bondra scored again, to give Slovakia the advantage. A late surge by Canada at the end of the game was not enough, and so Slovakia came out the victors by three goals to two.
Slovakia was through to the semi-finals against the hosts, Sweden. Again Slovakia was the underdog, but again after an almighty struggle they won through. This time it was even closer, going all the way to penalties. I remember the complete silence as Slovakia prepared to take the deciding penalty. I was willing them to score, but couldn't bear to look. Suddenly, a crescendo of noise filled the hostinec, and that could mean only one thing. All around me people were jumping up and down, screaming, shouting in delight, hugging each other, friends, family and complete strangers. Slovakia had done it; they had made it to the final!
...
When my wife and I made our plans for the 11th May, I had no idea that there would be an Ice Hockey Championship in full swing, let alone that Slovakia would be in the final. So it was with great regret that we set off from Slovakia on that Saturday morning, and we were determined that we would some how get the chance to watch the game.
We had planned to drive to Germany and spend the night there, but we could not guarantee that the final would be on German television, so we stopped for the night in Teplice instead, just short of the Czech/German border. In Teplice we found a wonderful little hotel, which we booked into, then quickly got showered and changed, before setting off in search of a place that was showing the game. We were both extremely hungry, so we were pleased to find a pizzeria close by that was showing the final on a big screen. As well as showing the hockey they also had ice-cold Pilsner on tap. This should be a good night, I thought.
I was half way through my first pint of Pilsner, when the match began. By this time a number of Czechs had crowded around the bar area, settling down to watch the game as well. When the Slovak team came out on to the pitch, the Czechs all began to cheer, they had obviously adopted Slovakia for the night. I tried to imagine being in a pub in Scotland, with a crowd of Scots cheering on England in the World Cup Finals in Korea and Japan, and smiled.
It wasn't too long before the Czechs and I had something to cheer about. Slovakia scored the first goal, and then a second to make it 2-0. Then Miroslav Satan had a third goal cruelly disallowed, it seemed plain sailing for the Slovaks. I sat back and relaxed and enjoyed my beer, this will be easy I thought. I was wrong. Into the second period, and on to my second pint of Pilsner, Russia struck back with a goal. However, Slovakia soon maintained the two goal advantage, with a fine goal by Miroslav Satan to make it 3-1. I was now enjoying my pizza, and the thoughts that my adopted country would soon be World Champions. I only hoped that England could match this feat in the up and coming soccer tournament during the summer.
Of course, my celebrations were somewhat premature. The Canada and Sweden games had been on the edge of your seat stuff, and the final was to be no different. Russia began to play much better hockey in the third stanza, and scored a second and then a third goal, to make it all square, at three a piece. With barely six minutes left to play, it was anybody's game. By now the play was flowing, and so was the beer. I was well into my fourth Pilsner, when Peter Bondra scored Slovakia's fourth, and the games deciding goal.
A huge cheer went up in the pizzeria, there was only a minute left to go, surely Slovakia would win now. That final minute seemed to drag on for ages, and then finally the hooter went to sound the end of the match. Slovakia had become World Champions! Loud cheers from the Czechs now filled the pizzeria, but the loudest cheer of all was from an Englishman, who had perhaps had one Pilsner too many.
