Slovakia went into the game with history on their side as they had won seven of the last nine games between the two nations and had won the last three matches since beating the Danes in a penalty shootout on home ice in Kosice in May 2019.
The Slovaks did not take any prisoners but controlled the game from beginning to end, outshooting Denmark 44-14 and won the game 5-1.
Mikael Gath's men actually started quite aggressively, but it didn't last long, and they soon found it more than difficult to establish themselves in the Slovakian zone.
In goal, Mads Soegaard was kept busy from the start and made several great reflex saves, even though he went down in the first period in a collision with Frantisek Pospisil and had to be replaced by Nikolaj Henriksen.
At that time, Slovakia had already taken the lead when Martin Chromiak didn’t hesitate and beat Soegaard with a quick wrister halfway through the first period.
Henriksen had a tough start to the second period as the Slovaks already doubled the lead after 56 seconds when Adam Liska one-timed it to the top shelf past Henriksen.
Five and a half minutes later, the match was effectively put out of reach for the struggling Danes when Oliver Okuliar finished off a slick move to make it 3-0 with almost seven minutes gone on the clock in the second period. The Danes then had a glimmer of hope early in the third period when Mikkel Aagaard fired a wrist shot that beat Slovak keeper Samuel Hlavaj.
But the hope was extinguished as Martin Pospisil and Sebastian Cederle completed the rout with further goals for the favourites in the third period.
