OLYMPICS: Ice Hockey Team and Skier Maze In Tuesday's Focus
Sochi, 18 February - The Slovenian men's ice-hockey team will be looking for its chances against Austria in a play-off match for entry into the quarter-finals on Tuesday. Olympic downhill champion Tina Maze will moreover try to secure her second medal in Sochi in the women's giant slalom.
Sochi
Slovenian ice-hockey team
Photo: Stanko Gruden/STA
The ice-hockey team, the first ever Slovenian squad at Olympic games, secured the play-off against the worst-placed team in Group B by clinching third place in Group A thanks to a historic 3:1 win against Slovakia.
After feeling weak and being treated in hospital after Sunday's 1:5 defeat against the US, Slovenia's NHL star Anže Kopitar is said to be in better shape again and will probably be ready for the 9 AM encounter with Austria. Sweden is waiting for the winner of the match.
"If somebody had told us before the Olympics that this game will decide the team going to the quarter-finals we would have accepted the deal immediately...The match will surely be very close, as the best players are playing on both sides," team captain Tomaž Razingar said.
Maze, the giant slalom silver medallist from Vancouver 2010, will meanwhile already start at 6:30 AM CET and hopes to find back to her giant slalom form, which she has struggled to do this season.
The 30-year-old, whose prime disciplined used to be the giant slalom, won Slovenia's first even Winter Olympics gold last week in the downhill race.