Maksim Afinogenov gave Russia the lead in the opening 20 minutes and Aleksandr Ovechkin opened his account in the second.

But the defending champions had some tough times in the third period after an effort from the blue line from Ivan Majesky made the score 2-1.

The Slovaks gained control of the puck and went looking for an equalizer, managing to create a number of dangerous situation in front of Vasily Koshechkin’s goals.

They had their best chances in the last two minutes when they were playing 6 on 4 after Sergey Fedoeov received a two-minute penalty and Slovak coach Glen Hanlon replaced the keeper with another field player.

The puck hit the post twice before, eventually bouncing to Russian veteran Viktor Kozlov, who killed the game off, scoring into an empty net, 3-1.

“We needed to score the third goal. We looked poor in the power play [at the start of the third period]. But, thank god, we stood firm and won the match… We were very good in the first two periods. And in the third period, I think, we became too relaxed; we started to make mistakes in the middle of the rink. And some of those mistakes led to a goal that we conceded,” Aleksandr Ovechkin told Rossiya 2 channel.

Russia faces Kazakhstan on Tuesday, May 11 in their second game of the tournament.