OTTAWA -- The Ottawa Senators will allow defenseman Zdeno Chara and forward Marian Hossa to play one preliminary-round game for Slovakia in the 2002 Olympics. Forward Ivan Ciernik will be available for all three games.

Chara and Hossa would be available for Slovakia's game against Latvia on Feb. 10. The Senators play Detroit on Feb. 9 and Pittsburgh on Feb. 12, when Slovakia plays Germany and Austria, respectively.

The Senators will charter a plane to bring Chara and Hossa to Salt Lake City following the Senators' game against the Red Wings on Saturday, and then to bring them back to Ottawa after the Slovaks' game on Sunday against Latvia.

"Mr. (Rod) Bryden (the Senators' majority owner) was gracious and more than willing to make all of our players available to their respective countries for the Olympic Games," said Ottawa general manager Marshall Johnston in a prepared statement, "and there was no exception for Zdeno (Chara), Marian (Hossa) and Ivan (Ciernik)."

Johnston played for Canada at the 1964 Olympics and returned to captain the squad to a bronze medal in 1968.

Slovakia is one of eight teams that has to play in the preliminary round, from February 9-14, to qualify as one of two countries to join the final round with the Czech Republic, Canada, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. The top two countries from each group will advance to the final round.

At the 1998 Nagano Olympics, Kazakhstan and Belarus qualified from the preliminary round, while the Slovak squad finished with a 1-1-1 record behind Kazakhstan (2-0-1), but ahead of Italy (1-2-0) and Austria (0-1-2).