The history of IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship games between France and Slovenia is a short one. The only previous time the teams had met was in Paris, on May 15, 2017. The home team was stronger that day, 4-1. Their record is now 1-1 after Slovenia beat France 3-1 in Stockholm in 2025.
 
With the win, Slovenia also guaranteed a spot in the top division for 2026. Zan Jezovsek, Nik Simsic and Matic Torok scored for Slovenia, Tim Bozon for France. Lukas Horak made 28 saves for Slovenia. 



“This means a lot to me and the guys, we’ve always gone down, so this is a big achievement. They got the goal in the end, but our goalie was amazing,” Slovenia's captain Robert Sabolic said. 
 
“It’s hard. I feel like we started the tournament the right way, but we didn’t capitalize [in the game against big nations] and then were beside ourselves in the important games," said Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, the 40-year-old captain of the team. “This is my last Ice Hockey World Championship," he added. 

Going into the crucial game – the losing team would get relegated from the top division – France and Slovenia were the lowest scoring teams in Group A. France had scored seven goals in six games, Slovenia six in six games. France’s leading scorers were Jordann Perret and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, the 40-year-old captain of the team, both with four points. Slovenia’s leading scorer was Marcel Mahkovec with one goal and two assists.
 
Slovenia had also allowed more goals than France, 28 to France’s 24.
 
Today’s game was also a low-scoring one.
 
In the game against France, Slovenia found the back of the net early, with the help of a rare full two-minute 5-on-3 power play when both Baptiste Bruche and Kevin Bozon were sent to the penalty box for tripping, during the same shift.
 
Slovenia held on to the puck, patiently, looking for the perfect opportunity. Then Zan Jezovsek tiptoed around the French triangle and waited and waited for his chance and when he saw an opening, he fired a wrist shot that beat Papillon down low on the glove side, to make it 1-0 for Slovenia at 9.22.
 
Slovenia outshot France 10-5 in the first period, and Papillon had to make several high-quality stops including Jan Drozg’s penalty shot.
 
At 16.21, Papillon had to surrender again. Slovenia jumped on a 3-on-2 rush, Nik Simsic carried the puck into the French zone, dropped it to Mahkovec, who found Rok Kapel to his right. Papillon got a piece of Kapel’s shot, but the puck rolled to his right post where Simsic was waiting to slam it in to make it 2-0.

“Our group has been here for a while and we’ve never managed to stay up, so I'm so happy now. We said this was our Game 7. I think the pressure was on them, especially after the first period,” Sabolic said. 
 
France created a few good scoring chances in the second period but couldn’t capitalize on any of them, and the period was scoreless, setting up a thrilling last period.
 
France played with desperation in the third period, and outshot Slovenia 14-6 in the period, but couldn’t get the puck past Lukas Horak. 

Coach Yorick Treille pulled Papillon in the end as France chased the equalizer, and they got it, with 1.55 remaining, when Tim Bozon fired from the slot and France was on the board. 

France kept pushing with six skaters, but 15 seconds before the signal, Slovenia's Torok sealed the final score, 3-1, into an empty French net. 

“We left everything on the ice and we battled hard. We have a young team, and we reached our goal,” Sabolic said. 

“We were close to getting a few points earlier in the tournament, and now it was a do-or-die game, you can always win or lose those, and we lost,” France’s Hugo Gallet said.