Slovakia claimed its first Olympic men's ice hockey medal after defeating Sweden 4-0 in the bronze medal match at Beijing 2022 on Saturday.

The Slovaks were desperate to win as they lost the bronze medal game to Finland at Vancouver 2010.

17-year-old Slovak forward Juraj Slafkovsky scored his sixth goal in Beijing at 23:17, and Samuel Takac put the puck into the net at 32:47 in power play.

Slafkovsky scored again at 58:26 when Sweden's goalkeeper was out, and Pavol Regenda threw the puck into the net 20 seconds later.

Slovakia edged past the United States 3-2 through a shootout in the quarterfinals, before losing to Finland 2-0 in the semifinals.

Sweden advanced with an impressive 2-0 win over world No. 1 Canada in the quarterfinals, and was defeated by defending champions the Russian Olympic Committee 2-1 via shootout in the semifinals.