page_title: Sport in Slovakia
section_title: Ice hockey
hierarchical_section_title: Sport in Slovakia / Team sports / Ice hockey
caption_attribution_description: English: This picture shows the crowd that welcomed Slovak ice hockey players after returning from 2012 World Championship and finishing 2nd
context_page_description: Sport in Slovakia is influenced by its climate and geography; popular summer sports include football, tennis, volleyball, swimming, cycling and hiking, popular winter sports include skiing and snowboarding. The most watched sports in Slovakia are football, ice hockey and tennis.
  Internationally, the most successful sport in Slovakia is ice hockey where currently, as of 2017, the country is ranked as the tenth best team in the world by the IIHF World Ranking.
context_section_description: For more information, see History of ice hockey in Slovakia or Slovakia men's national ice hockey team.
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  After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Slovak national ice hockey team started competing in Group C (lowest tier) of IIHF World Championships. After winning Group C in 1994 and Group B in 1995 Slovakia was promoted to Group A for 1996 World Championship. Since then, Slovak hockey team has won one gold medal in 2002, two silver medals (in 2000 and 2012) and one bronze medal in 2003.
  Slovakia has had many players in the NHL. From the Czechoslovak era, the most famous are Stan Mikita and Peter Šťastný. Since the Velvet revolution there have been much more Slovak players in the NHL, such as Peter Bondra, Marián Hossa, Pavol Demitra or Zdeno Chára. Up to now, there have been 9 Slovak players that have won the Stanley Cup:
  Stan Mikita (1): 1961
  Jiří Bicek (1): 2003
  Martin Cibák (1): 2004
  Tomáš Kopecký (2): 2008, 2010,
  Miroslav Šatan (1): 2009
  Marián Hossa (3): 2010, 2013, 2015
  Zdeno Chára (1): 2011
  Michal Handzuš (1): 2013
  Marián Gáborík (1): 2014
  In addition to the players in NHL, many Slovaks play in various leagues all over Europe, most of them in international KHL. As of 2012–13 season, there are 50 Slovak players playing in KHL, which is due to a Slovak team HC Slovan Bratislava competing in this league.
  There are also three national hockey leagues in Slovakia, with Tipsport Extraliga being the top tier of the system. Most league titles (8) were won by HC Slovan Bratislava.
  Slovakia also organized the 2011 IIHF World Championship, which was won by Finland. The venues were Bratislava and Košice and all matches attracted 406,804 visitors.
  Ice hockey is probably the most popular sport in Slovakia. After finishing 2nd in 2012 IIHF World Championship a cheering crowd of tens of thousands people greeted the national team players on SNP Square in Bratislava, which exemplifies the popularity of this sport in the country.
caption: Fans welcoming Slovak national hockey team after returning from 2012 IIHF World Championship, where they won silver medals
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