Martin Pospisil is getting used to being the centre of attention.
The Flames forward was front and centre again Thursday evening - figuratively and literally - in front of a sold-out Bratislava crowd, putting his NHL pedigree on display while patrolling the middle of the ice in Slovakia’s 2-1 Olympic qualifying win over Austria.
Pospisil followed up his strong showing at this past spring’s IIHF World Championship with another solid effort, keeping up his point-per-game pace in international play this year.
Overall, the 24-year-old finished the night with an assist while tying for the team lead with four shots on goal; and he showed a glimpse of future versatility in the Flames forward corps, too, by winning 55% of his 11 faceoff attempts.
The Slovaks held the edge in play right from the drop of the puck, outshooting Austria 10-1 through the first 10 minutes of play. Pospisil - skating on a line with older brother Kristian and Pavol Regenda - drew a penalty in the opening minutes before driving the net from the right wing midway through the stanza, forcing a backhand effort on goal in the process.
The Pospisil brothers were representing the national side for the first time as teammates Thursday, and they nearly connected on a storybook opener early in period two. Martin fired a pass to the slot from the side of the net to Kristian, but the elder Pospisil’s effort was kicked aside by Austrian netminder David Kickert’s left pad.
Finally, with just under eight minutes remaining in the middle frame, the hosts broke the deadlock, with Pospisil to thank.
At the tail end of a Slovak powerplay, Pospisil froze an Austrian defender with a quick juke, then zipped a pass from the right corner onto the tape of Martin Gernat, who strode into the slot from the left point and ripped the puck past Kickert.
The Austrians turned up the pace after falling behind 2-0, halving the scoreline with eight seconds remaining in the period while up two men.
But try as they might, Austria could not find an equalizer despite outshooting Slovakia 12-5 in the final period. Slovak goaltender Samuel Hlavaj earned his side’s Top Performer honours by turning aside 29 shots to secure the victory.
With the win, Slovakia moved another step closer to qualifying for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy; the winner of their four-team round-robin will secure their spot in the Games along with two other pool winners.
Pospisil and Slovakia are back in action Friday morning at 10 a.m. MT versus Hungary before closing the three-game tournament Sunday against Kazakhstan.
