Skip to content

Warriors’ Baco looks back on impressive showing for Slovakia at World Junior Hockey Championship

Win over United States, close call in quarter-final against eventual champion Canada, and support of Halifax fans among highlights 

To say the least, the recently concluded World Junior Hockey Championship was one of the most entertaining in recent memory.

Every day, there seemed to be a big win for a team looking to climb up the international rankings, with upsets a regular occurrence throughout the event.

Not only was Moose Jaw Warriors forward Robert Baco part of the whole thing with Team Slovakia, he played a major role in one of the biggest wins in recent history for his country and was part of an underdog crew that came within one goal of knocking off the eventual gold medalists.

So while the 19-year-old forward might not be coming home with a medal, there’s plenty of pride in how Slovakia played throughout the tournament in Halifax.

“It was a hell of a couple weeks, a great atmosphere, a lot of emotional games and it was undescribable, basically,” Baco said after his first game back in Moose Jaw on Friday night. “I had a lot of fun, most of us have known each other since we were 15, so we’re all like a second family. So it was awesome to be a part of it all with those guys.”

Slovakia ended up with a 2-1-1-0 record in their round robin pool to finish third in Group B.

It wasn’t a great start for Baco and crew, as they dropped a 5-2 decision to Finland in their opener. But little did they know that their fortunes would be dramatically different when they faced the United States 24 hours later.

Baco scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and Slovakia would never look back, going on to a 6-3 win in what ended up as the biggest upset of the tournament.

“It was really cool,” Baco said of beating the U.S. “They have a lot of drafted guys, so we were focussed and ready, really hyped up for the game, and it went really well. I think we embarrassed them a lot. We’re a small state but that doesn’t mean anything, we did a great job and I’m super glad that we won that game.”

One surprising factor for Slovakia was the crowd support from the Halifax faithful -- there was little question who they were cheering for in the win over the U.S., and it wasn’t their southern neighbours.

“It was surprising, I was thinking because they’re the west, they’d both be cheering for each other, but it wasn’t like that at all,” Baco said. “I was happy they were on our side, it was good to have them cheering for us and I think it helped us”

A late-game major penalty in defence of one of his teammates led to Baco being suspended for Slovakia’s 3-0 win over Latvia, but he was back in the lineup for their final round robin contest, a 4-3 shootout loss to Switzerland.

That all sent Slovakia into the quarterfinal, where they’d face Canada. On home soil. In the playoffs. In the World Junior Hockey Championship. 

Needless to say, it was one heck of an atmosphere as more than 10,000 fans packed the building to cheer on the tournament hosts.

Slovakia were anything but rattled, though, and fought tooth and nail throughout the contest. Canada took a 3-1 lead midway through the proceedings, but Baco himself would get one back before the second period was out, and Slovakia stunned the crowd by scoring the lone goal of the third period to send things into overtime.

There, Slovakia had a couple of scoring chances before Connor Bedard did what Connor Bedard does, scoring the game-winner on a great individual effort.

“It was an even game and basically at the end of the game it was about luck,” Baco said of the tough loss and near monster upset. “We had a couple of great chances, but (Canada goaltender Thomas) Milic had a really good save on (Servac) Petrovsky and we almost scored again, then they scored right after. It was really sad to lose against Canada, we worked so hard and were so focussed, our mentality was great. They just got a chance and made the best of it.”

The Halifax fans made sure to let Slovakia know how much they appreciated their effort, cheering their team off the ice after their final game of the tournament.

“Yeah, I shed a tear at end when they were cheering for us,” said Baco. “ It was pretty emotional.”

While things didn’t end with a medal as he hoped, Baco is still immensely proud of his team’s performance throughout the event.

“It meant everything, it was my dream to play there,” he said. “I think I did a good job, I played my role well and while it wasn’t good enough to beat Canada in the quarterfinals, I still think we had a great showing. It was all a lot of fun to be a part of.”

Now, it’s back with the Moose Jaw Warriors and the remainder of the WHL season, with Baco aiming to use his World Juniors experience as a springboard for a solid campaign the rest of the way.

“The season in Moose Jaw has been pretty decent, but I think I showed people I’m capable of playing international hockey and I’m happy I was able to have an impact,” he said. “It was a real confidence boost for me, and I even felt way different tonight than I did before. So I’ll just keep working hard and doing what I can to help the team.”

You can check out all the scores and stats from the World Junior Hockey Championship at www.iihf.com.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks