MILAN, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Slovakia celebrated what forward Dalibor Dvorsky called the "best loss" of his life after securing a place in the Olympic men's ice hockey quarter-finals despite a 5-3 defeat by Sweden on Saturday.
Confusing scenes unfolded at the Arena Milano when Dvorsky struck late in the third period, prompting Slovak players to throw up their arms in celebration even though Sweden had already secured victory.
Slovakia had twice fought back to level the game but trailed by three goals with only seconds remaining when Dvorsky found the back of the net.
The goal, far from a mere consolation, triggered jubilation on the Slovak bench, as players anticipated Finland's win over Italy and their own advance to the top of Group B on the tie-break criteria.
Under the rules of the Olympic tournament, when three or four teams finish group play level on points, they are ranked first by points earned in head-to-head games among the tied teams and then by goal differential in those head-to-head games, instead of overall goal difference.
Finland's 11-0 thrashing of the hosts later on Saturday created a three-way tie between Finland, Slovakia and Sweden, with Slovakia holding the edge on a plus-one goal differential.
"It feels awesome. It is the best loss of my life," Dvorsky told reporters. "We have a chance to finish first. It feels awesome, but we will not get too happy yet."
Sweden looked far sharper on Saturday than in their Friday loss to Finland and seemed set to finish the group stage on a high, until Dvorsky's late goal wiped the smiles off faces even in victory.
The result denied Sweden an automatic berth in the final eight, now facing the prospect of an additional qualification game to keep their Olympic campaign alive. The winners of each of the three preliminary groups and the next best overall team automatically advance.
"We played a way better game today. Obviously, it's unfortunate that we were up by three and we let one in with 30-whatever seconds left," Sweden forward Adrian Kempe said.
"We're going to have to play probably one more game than some other teams, but you know, that's an opportunity for us to come together even more as a team, work on our details, work on our game as a unit out there," Kempe added. "That's the way I'm seeing it."
The knockout stages start on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Milan; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
