Men's Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games 2018

[hckošice 15,520]

Lalande on song

Netminder hero as Belarus downs Denmark

 

Inspiring goaltending and efficiency when surging forward sends Minsk Arena rocking as Belarus charges ahead to a momentous 5-2 win against Denmark in Group D.

 

In front of a crowd of 15,086, Lalande stopped 30 shots while at the other end, Sergei Kostitsyn scored a brace while Andrei Stas bagged 1+1 to give Belarus a perfect start in their quest for a place at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

 

"I think you could have given it to 20 guys tonight," said a humble Lalande after collecting the man-on-the match accolade. "Everybody did something but it is an honour to get this kind of award."

 

Denmark who got in front in this seesaw battle are left to rue spurned opportunities in a contest where they won the shots 32-22. Nicklas Jensen and Jannik Hansen got on the scoresheet for the Scandinavians.

 

Speaking ahead of their opening game at the Final Olympic Qualification, Denmark's head coach Jan Karlsson had predicted a Belarusian onslaught right from the outset.

 

Instead it was Denmark that drew first blood. First Peter Regin had came close at the opening stages, before Jensen burst through with speed and trickery to cut inside from right point to weave past a Belarusian rearguard and hit home a top-draw finish just 2:46 into the game.

 

"The first ten minutes Denmark were all over us, but Kevin (Lalande) made some saves which calmed our players," said Dave Lewis, head coach of Belarus.

 

As Denmark failed to convert further chances to go ahead, it was the home favourites who grafted themselves back into the game roared on by a full house inside Minsk Arena.

At 11:50, a free-flowing move saw Charles Linglet and Stas combine to set up Alexander Pavlovich to tie the game and before the first frame had come to a close Denmark was caught sleeping while on the powerplay with Yevgeni Lisovets and Artyom Volkov converted to put Belarus in front 2-1.

 

"They get two easy goals, the first one is a 3-on-1 and their second is 2-on-1 while playing shorthanded," lamented Karlsson after the game.

 

While the second period finished goalless chances appeared at both ends. Belarus hit the post from blueline while Denmark work themselves back into the game during the second half of the period.

 

With all left to play for heading into the third period, Belarus hit home their third goal of the evening at 43:46. Oliver Lauridsen served a tripping call when inspirational Sergei Kostitsyn converted his first of the evening at a precarious time for Denmark.

 

"The 3-1 goal is a tough goal with just a few second left of our boxplay," said head coach Karlsson. "But in hockey things can happen fast. Two shifts later, Mads Christensen got a totally empty net and you have to score those chances."

 

But it was not to be Denmark's night with the killer blow arriving soon after. A tenacious Geoff Platt charged ahead and snapped up the puck of Jesper B. Jensen in Denmark's defensive zone to pick out Stas for 4-1 with 6:33 left of the game.

 

A Hansen slapshot from the right point high past Lalande offered little consolation with 1:19 left of the game and it was Belarus who scored the final goal of the night with Sergei Kostitsyn's empty netter.

 

Despite a victory against your top contender for a place in PyeongChang 2018 now successfully out of the way, Belarus refuse to take anything for granted as they head into their second game against Poland tomorrow evening.

 

"This was the most important game tonight and tomorrow's game is the most important game tomorrow," said head coach Lewis ahead of the game against Poland who will be next up. "The player can enjoy this victory until midnight, but we have three tough opponents in this tournament and we must prepare to play with the same amount of emotion and passion as we did tonight."

 

With the odds now stacked against Denmark in their quest for that elusive first Olympic appearance a lot is still left to play for as the Scandinavians recharge to face Slovenia next.

 

"We cry until midnight, but tomorrow we have a new game," said Karlsson.

 

[phelps 8,285]

14 hours ago, hckosice said:

 

do you mean the winner of Beijing 2008 under 53kg ? because thats definitely yes the most. unbeatable

 

oh yes great day, still the NOR vs KAZ to finish. but what a day, Italy play with a totally new team, I am not familiar with at least 60 % of your players playing in Oslo. Great and all my respect for the way Italy choosed to go, despite the importance of the tournament there no so many "naturalized" North Americans with Italian "decents" but you are trying with many young new faces. respect. ofc there still the top leaders in the team as Larkin or Scandella and great Bernard in the goal but many new faces are trully refreshing this new Italy team

 

Slovenia played very good, a lot of very nice actions and goals. They have a great team, but I still think this BLR group will be opened untill the end.

 

Austria is a joke really, they don´t deserve to be there, some teams from the previous round like HUN for example deserved more to play this final qualification round than this joke team..

 

yes, of course I immediately thought about her...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prapawadee_Jaroenrattanatarakoon

 

about Italy...well, it's already quite a while that we don't use many North American born Italians...after our championships' decline, we simply can't afford them anymore (to be honest, it's also a political decision by the new officials of our federation, but I'm sure that if we could still call up a few of the best NHL/AHL player with Italian descent, we would do it despite all the the announces in the opposite direction)...

so, the only thing we could do, it was to start sending our best youngsters in a better youth system (junior Swiss league or junior EBEL) so to give them a chance to play at a higher level day in and day out and be useful to our National team one day...

now these politics start to pay their prize and we have a good bunch of youngsters playing in Bozen (EBEL) and/or around good European leagues, like SUI/GER and also some Finnish and KHL teams (even Slovan Bratislava have 1 of our former Canadian born Italian from the last generation, Nick Plastino...I saw him last night against Sochi spending quite a few minutes on the penalty bench...his real strenght...), where we can call them up from...

by the way, we still have 4 players not raised in Italy in our team (Cloutier, who's naturlized because of wedding, Trivellato, who's a German-born Italian and Di Casimirro and Scandella, who are North American born Italians)...

all the others (including Thomas Larkin, who was born in London and raised here in Italy, despite his name could suggest a different story) are Italian born and raised players (even Zanatta and Gellert, whose fathers were "outside Italy born" Italians playing in our championships in the 80's and 90's)...

that's the full genesis of our current team...

[mihamiha 124]

juhu,we won

 

now against belarus

[hckošice 15,520]

5 hours ago, phelps said:

 

yes, of course I immediately thought about her...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prapawadee_Jaroenrattanatarakoon

 

about Italy...well, it's already quite a while that we don't use many North American born Italians...after our championships' decline, we simply can't afford them anymore (to be honest, it's also a political decision by the new officials of our federation, but I'm sure that if we could still call up a few of the best NHL/AHL player with Italian descent, we would do it despite all the the announces in the opposite direction)...

so, the only thing we could do, it was to start sending our best youngsters in a better youth system (junior Swiss league or junior EBEL) so to give them a chance to play at a higher level day in and day out and be useful to our National team one day...

now these politics start to pay their prize and we have a good bunch of youngsters playing in Bozen (EBEL) and/or around good European leagues, like SUI/GER and also some Finnish and KHL teams (even Slovan Bratislava have 1 of our former Canadian born Italian from the last generation, Nick Plastino...I saw him last night against Sochi spending quite a few minutes on the penalty bench...his real strenght...), where we can call them up from...

by the way, we still have 4 players not raised in Italy in our team (Cloutier, who's naturlized because of wedding, Trivellato, who's a German-born Italian and Di Casimirro and Scandella, who are North American born Italians)...

all the others (including Thomas Larkin, who was born in London and raised here in Italy, despite his name could suggest a different story) are Italian born and raised players (even Zanatta and Gellert, whose fathers were "outside Italy born" Italians playing in our championships in the 80's and 90's)...

that's the full genesis of our current team...

 

Thanks for all the informations

 

Yes ofc I know Plastino, nah you are too harsh to him, he is a good player

 

btw do you know whats the current situation about Ihnacak ? is he still a part of the let say larger Italian roster or his times in Italian NT are over ?

[hckošice 15,520]

Slovenia

 

Denmark terrible..I´m so sorry for them. I was absolutely sure that this time they will qualify...incredible waste to not succeed with such team

[Gianlu33 5,276]

Denmark losed the quota  

[hckošice 15,520]

Logic and deserved win of France over Kazakhstan 4-1, The French are now really close to Pyeongchang 2018, win over Norway will qualify "Les Bleus"  to the games, which will be huge for the hockey in France. The return to the olympics after last appearance in Salt Lake 2002 14th place.

 

btw last France match at olympics bring one of the most beautiful and most memorable goals but also surely the most arrogant goal of the whole olympic history scored by Marián Hossa

 

 

 

[hckošice 15,520]

Crazy 1st period between Belarus and Poland. Belarus from 0-2 is now leading 4-2 after 20 minutes. Pitty for Poland they played really good, but once again very stupid penalties --- got 2 mins for too many players on ice when you are already playing shorthanded is something we don´t see so often even in junior level

[hckošice 15,520]

Viki Azarenka in the stands

[NearPup 3,496]

Sad for Denmark, they have done really well over the last couple of quads yet they always come short from qualifying for the Olympics.

 

At this point I really hope France and Latvia qualify. I wanted Denmark to make it from the other tournament so I don't have a real preference anymore.