Slovakia Cherishes Its Finest Moment on Ice

The Kings’ Ziggy Palffy and his Slovak teammates might have had a forgettable experience at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games but they made the most of their time at last week’s World Championships.

On a late third-period goal by Washington’s Peter Bondra, Slovakia won its first gold medal with a 4-3 victory over Russia in the championship game at Goteborg, Sweden, before a pro-Slovakia crowd that included President Rudolf Schuster.

With the victory, the Slovaks avenged the perceived lack of respect shown them at the Olympics, where they had to play in the preliminary round, whereas Canada, Finland, Sweden, Russia, the Czech Republic and the U.S.--supposedly international hockey’s elite teams--got direct byes into the qualifying round. Slovakia failed to advance because some NHL players had difficulty freeing themselves from their teams before the league’s Olympic break. Slovakia finished 13th among 14 teams.

That was not a problem in Sweden, and Palffy, who joined Team Slovakia after the Kings had been eliminated from the playoffs by Colorado, Bondra and several other NHL players, among them King defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky and former King Jozef Stumpel, made their country of 5.4 million people proud.

“This is just indescribable,” Peter Stastny, Slovakia’s general manager said of his country’s first gold medal since the breakup of Czechoslovakia 10 years ago. “It was a gradual, rising euphoria. People the last few days back home, I don’t think they worked.

“This is, without a doubt, the greatest success of the country. Our people suffered after the Olympics. They felt an injustice. And this is probably the best revenge.”

More than 25,000 Slovaks gave the team a hero’s welcome on its return to Bratislava on Sunday. Dozens carried Slovak flags, wore jerseys similar to those of the national team or painted their faces in the national colors--white, blue and red.

Although Russia had only three NHL players on its roster, and Olympic finalists Canada and the U.S. each had teams playing at less than full strength, the Slovaks cherished their victory.

“I can’t describe what this means in Slovakia,” said captain Miroslav Satan of the Buffalo Sabres, the tournament’s MVP. “The people in Slovakia don’t have much good news. This is the biggest and best news since we started our own country.... I’m very happy and I will remember it for the rest of my life.”

One lasting memory of the tournament was forged in the semifinals when Slovak players and coaches locked arms on the bench during a tense shootout victory over Sweden.

“I really believe we were the best team here,” Stastny said. “Peter Bondra was unbelievable. So was Miro Satan. So was Ziggy Palffy.”

Don’t look for Slovakia to be left out of the elite group at the 2006 Olympic Games because the Slovaks already have been added to the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.

Clarke on Hot Seat

An Internet site, clarkemustgo.com, has been set up by a group of Philadelphia fans upset with General Manager Bobby Clarke since the Flyers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Ottawa, after finishing with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

The site’s home page features the words “Clarke Must Go” with an Xed out No. 16, Clarke’s old jersey number. More than 7,300 people--one from Helsinki, Finland--have visited the site and added their names to a petition calling for Clarke’s firing.

Clarke, though, has more pressing issues to deal with than a negative web site.

First on his list is naming a new coach after firing Bill Barber. Former Boston coach Pat Burns, former Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock, Colorado assistant Bryan Trottier and Montreal assistant Guy Carbonneau are believed to be the leading candidates. Hitchcock has emerged as the favorite and could be named coach as early as today.

Clarke also will spend time in an Atlantic City, N.J., courthouse this summer, testifying in Dave Babych’s lawsuit against the Flyers, which will start July 15.

Babych was nearing the end of his 17-year NHL career in 1998 when, in the playoffs against Buffalo, after a talk with the Flyers’ orthopedic surgeon, Arthur Bartolozzi, he played on a frozen foot that turned out to be fractured in three places.

Babych contends his career was cut short by the further damage he did to his foot, and maintains that the Flyers were aware that he would suffer such a fate.

Line Shifts

Montreal fans sank to a new low last week when someone threw bananas toward black Carolina goaltender Kevin Weekes. Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe wrote: “Quite a run for Habs’ fans. They booed ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ during the Bruin series, and now a sad display of racism. If they’re going to act that, uh, American, why don’t we just buy ‘em?” ... The New York Rangers, Dallas, Washington and the Mighty Ducks are looking for coaches. Herb Brooks, the two-time U.S. Olympic coach, is reportedly the leading candidate for the Ranger job--one he held 20 years ago--after former New Jersey and King coach Larry Robinson told the team he wasn’t interested. The New York Times reported last week that former Ranger and current Florida Coach Mike Keenan also remains a possibility.... There is very little sympathy outside of Toronto for Maple Leaf winger Darcy Tucker, who was knocked out of the playoffs with a shoulder injury on a hit by Ottawa’s Daniel Alfredsson in Game 5. “He’s a guy who has a reputation for diving and embellishing injuries,” one unidentified player told the Ottawa Sun. “There’s no way he was going to get the benefit of the doubt on that one after what he did to [New York Islander] Mike Peca. You live by the sword, you die by the sword.” Peca suffered a sprained knee in a low hit by Tucker earlier in the playoffs.