Slovenia’s Asian Easter package continued against Korea after a 2-1 loss to Japan on Sunday but the players learned their lesson and this time they came out determined from the very beginning.

“We knew we had to play better than against Japan and we did,” Slovenian forward Miha Verlic said. “We played according to our game plan and scored the goals. It’s an important win for our future in this tournament.”

It was a lopsided start. Slovenia already had seven shots on goal before the Koreans recorded their first attempt at 8:50. Then came a Slovenian team penalty for too many players on the ice and another one against Ziga Pavlin for handling the puck with the hands and a third one against Jan Mursak for slashing. There were no discounts made and the penalties gave Korea a 5-on-3 for over two minutes followed by a one-man advantage. But the Slovenian defence stood strong and withheld the pressure.

However, the Slovenes didn’t have the same energy like in the beginning of the game. The only big scoring chance until the end of the period originated in a Korean giveaway in the neutral zone with a double-pass play of Jan Mursak and Blaz Gregorc on a two-on-one breakaway but Mursak missed the puck in front of the open net. And for the end of the period Bostjan Golicic was sent out for high-sticking Wooyoung Kim but Shanghoon Shin followed him later for interference.

Also early in the second period the Slovenes didn’t create the same kind of offence like in the beginning of the game but at 5:51 Jan Urbas broke the deadlock with his shot into the top-right corner after a diagonal pass during a Slovenian power play. And 57 seconds later Miha Verlic made it 2-0. Rok Leber got the puck at the end boards from Anze Kuralt, skated towards the net and sent a horizontal pass to Verlic, who scored into the wide open net.