WEST VALLEY CITY ? Going in, Slovakia's men's hockey team knew it would disadvantaged. Now that it may be going out much sooner than anticipated, it's not at all happy with just how handicapped it is.
Germany upset a hard-hitting but shorthanded Slovakian team 2-0 in preliminary-round play of the 2002 Winter Games tournament, leaving one side rather frustrated it did not have a full complement of players.
"It's not fair," said Robert Petrovicky, Slovakia's team captain. "I can honestly say it's not fair. . . . It's too bad."
Slovakia's dilemma: Because it did not qualify for an automatic berth into the tourney's eight-team final round, it had to start preliminary-round play Saturday. The NHL, however, is not closing down for the Games until Wednesday, and not permitting its players to participate in the Olympics unless they can do so without missing their NHL games.
But Slovakia, unlike many others in the prelims, has numerous NHLers ? meaning the Slovakians have to had to juggle their roster as some come and go. To leave room for up to four who will play today, they went four shorthanded against the Germans.
That drew complaints from the losing Slovakians, who could contend for a medal ? if they only they can escape the prelims. Now, doing so will require not only beating Latvia today but also help from another country down the line.
Moreover, if they want Washington Capitals star Peter Bondra available for Tuesday's game against Austria, one of four Slovaks who arrive today (Zdeno Chara, Pavol Demitra, Marian Hossa and Jozef Stumpel) may have to sit against Latvia.
"Deciding the system - it's really tough," said Slovak Ziggy Palffy of the Los Angeles Kings. "I don't think they understand how many NHL guys we have."
In Saturday's other games:
BELARUS 1, UKRAINE 0: A 5-on-3 power-play goal in the third period from Oleg Mikulchik stood up for Belarus, which got 17-save goaltending from Sergei Shabanov.
Mikulchik, raised in the system of the former Soviet Union, is a 19-season veteran for Belarus, which has no NHL players. Ukraine - like Belarus, an ex-Soviet republic that helped the Unified team win gold in 1992, was playing its first-ever men's Olympic hockey game as a nation.
LATVIA 4, AUSTRIA 2: Grigorijs Pantelejevs used a second-period goal to snap a 2-2 tie, lifting Latvia past Austria.
The Austrians got down 2-0 early but rallied to tie with goals from Oliver Setzinger and Matthias Trattnig. Harjis Vitolins added an insurance goal nearly four minutes after Pantelejevs scored, and Latvian goalie Sergejs Naumovs blanked the Austrians in the third period.