It was good on Wednesday. Slafkovsky was a reason for the brilliance and a key cog in the ability of Slovakia (1-0-0-0) to defeat Finland for the first time in four Olympic meetings.
Eeli Tolvanen scored for Finland (0-0-1-0), and Juuse Saros made 21 saves.
Slafkovsky, a forward for the Montreal Canadiens, scored the opening goal of the game, turning a turnover by Finland defenseman Mikko Lehtonen into a brilliant solo effort, curling around Saros and tucking the puck into the unguarded net at 7:45 of the first period.
After Dalibor Dvorsky made it 2-1 early in the third period, Slafkovsky gave the Slovaks some breathing room with his power-play goal at 10:30. He assisted on the empty-net goal by Adam Ruzicka at 17:39 that…