After a 5-1 loss to the Finns on Wednesday, Belarus has turned in a couple of pretty solid performances to close out their round robin play. After making a serious run at upsetting Sweden the other day, they managed to get their first win of the tournament against Germany on Saturday. Andrei Mezin was the star goalie in net against Sweden, but against Germany, Vitali Koval turned in a stellar 37 save performance, helping Belarus win despite being outshot 40-17.
The Germans would have like to have gotten a better performance out of Thomas Greiss, who played well against Sweden, but only managed 12 saves yesterday. NHLer Dennis Seidenberg opened the scoring with a powerplay goal early in the first, but Alexei Ugarov drew the Belarusians even with a solo effort just past the midway point of the frame. Alexei Kahliuzhny gave Belarus their first lead of the tournament with the only goal of the 2nd period.
In the 2rd, Sergei Kostitsyn scored to give Belarus a two goal lead just after the 11 minute mark, but Germany was quick to respond, netting two goals of their own in the next 60 seconds to knot the game at 3-3. Kostitsyn also finished the game with 3 assists. Ruslan Salie, one of only a few NHL players on the Belarus roster, scored what would the game winner on the powerplay with just over 5 minutes to play in regulation, and Kaliuzhny added his 2nd of the contest with just over a minute left, giving Kioval all the cushion he would need to hold the Germans off.
The win gives Belarus 3 points at the end of the preliminary round, putting them in a better position than some of their other underdog counterparts like Latvia and Norway, but will still leave them with a tough matchup against whoever they face. They’ll need to continue to get strong tending from whoever is in net, while the Germans, with no points to their credit, will draw one of the top clubs not given a first round bye.