Thursday, December 30, 2004 7:50:49 PM
Belarus 5, USA 3 ~ Dec. 29
. 
Herald photo by Nathan Berndt
USA forward Drew Stafford, right,
celebrates with teammate Nathan Hagemo
following his goal in the second period.
Herald photo by Jackie Lorentz
Referees break up a fight between Team USA and Belarus players at the end of the game Wednesday after Belarus defeated USA 5-3.
Posted on Thu, Dec. 30, 2004
By Virg Foss
Herald Staff Writer
So much for smooth sailing on home ice for Team USA in the World Junior Championship.
Tiny and winless Belarus pulled a major upset Wednesday night, stunning previously unbeaten Team USA 5-3 in front of 8,038 perplexed and disbelieving fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.
Soft goals allowed by starter Cory Schneider and replacement Al Montoya allowed Belarus to race to a 5-2 lead after two periods and hand the United States its first loss in three games.
Even with the loss, the United States can finish first in pool B of the tournament by beating the Czech Republic tonight. Even if Russia beats Switzerland today in Thief River Falls and finishes pool play with the same 3-1 overall record as Team USA, the U.S. would win the tiebreaker based on its earlier win over Russia.
But after being outhustled, outplayed by Belarus and upstaged by goalie Stepan Goryachevskikh (39 saves), the U.S. hopes of repeating as gold medalist have been shaken.
"We'll have to play the entire game against the Czechs with the intensity we showed in the third period tonight," USA coach Scott Sandelin said. "And we need to eliminate all the turnovers we had."
Belarus was better at nearly every aspect of the game Wednesday, including holding the U.S. to 1-of-7 on the power play and offsetting that with a shorthanded goal by Alexi Efmienko at 9:14 of the first period.
His goal on a partial breakaway after an errant pass by Team USA in the offensive zone on the power play came against Schneider, who started in goal for the first time for Team USA. The freshman from Boston College gave up three goals on eight shots before being lifted for Montoya after Alexei Savin walked out from behind the net and whipped a shot through Schneider's legs just 2:10 into the second period.
Schneider also allowed a shot by Vadzim Karaha to trickle into the net off his arm at 15:38 of the opening period that extended the Belarus lead to 2-0.
Phil Kessel pulled Team USA to within 2-1 with his blast from the faceoff circle into the far corner of the net at 17:47 of the first period that narrowed the margin to 2-1.
But Savin's easy wraparound goal killed that momentum quickly in the second period.
If a shocking 3-1 lead for Belarus wasn't enough, Starhei Kukushkin greeted Montoya by beating him to the glove side from outside the blue line at 3:26 of the second period to make it 4-1. Then Andrei Kastsitsyn jumped on an errant pass off the wall from USA defenseman and team captain Ryan Suter to go the distance for an unassisted goal at 14:16, running the margin to 5-1.
That was more than enough to offset the third goal of the tournament by UND player Drew Stafford at 19:14 of the second period on a power play and Mike Brown's wrister from the right boards at 2:11 of the final period that closed the scoring.
Team USA outshot Belarus 21-10 in the third period and 42-26 for the game, but was upstaged by Goryachevskikh's goaltending and a three-point game from forward Kastisisyn, who had a goal and two assists and was named Belarus' player of the game.
"I had good luck," Goryachevskikh said through an interpreter.
Stafford, who now leads Team USA in goals with three one in each game chose not to dwell much on the stunner against Belarus.
"We've got to put it behind us and get ready for tomorrow," Stafford said.
Belarus had scored just four total goals in its first three tournament losses, then scored five in the first two periods against a U.S. team that most of the races to the puck and often mishandled the ones it did reach first.
Even a strong effort by Team USA in the first period wasn't enough to offset a four-goal deficit with the Belarus goalie, who came into the game with a 6.66 goals-against average in three tournament losses, making like a brick wall,.
"We need to come out for a full 60 minutes against the Czechs," Stafford said. "If we play like we did in the third period tonight for a full 60 minutes against the Czechs, I think we'll be fine."
Nobody from Team USA would say they overlooked Belarus, a team with minimal success in World Juniors play in any year.
"Any team can get goals and do well, especially in a tournament like this," Stafford said. "They got a lot of bounces, a lot of lucky bounces and took advantage of it."
When the game ended, a scuffle erupted between the teams with four players penalized, two from each side, with Andrei Karev of Belarus handed the a game misconduct and everyone else minors for roughing.
Belarus didn't miss a last chance to rub it in. As the last rumble was being broken up, a Belarus player looked at the U.S. players, pointed at his eyes, then up to the scoreboard where the final 5-2 margin of victory for Belarus told the true story of a battle won by tiny Belarus over the heavily favored U.S.
. Herald photo by Nathan Berndt
USA forward Drew Stafford, right,
celebrates with teammate Nathan Hagemo
following his goal in the second period.
Herald photo by Jackie Lorentz
Referees break up a fight between Team USA and Belarus players at the end of the game Wednesday after Belarus defeated USA 5-3.
Posted on Thu, Dec. 30, 2004
By Virg Foss
Herald Staff Writer
So much for smooth sailing on home ice for Team USA in the World Junior Championship.
Tiny and winless Belarus pulled a major upset Wednesday night, stunning previously unbeaten Team USA 5-3 in front of 8,038 perplexed and disbelieving fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.
Soft goals allowed by starter Cory Schneider and replacement Al Montoya allowed Belarus to race to a 5-2 lead after two periods and hand the United States its first loss in three games.
Even with the loss, the United States can finish first in pool B of the tournament by beating the Czech Republic tonight. Even if Russia beats Switzerland today in Thief River Falls and finishes pool play with the same 3-1 overall record as Team USA, the U.S. would win the tiebreaker based on its earlier win over Russia.
But after being outhustled, outplayed by Belarus and upstaged by goalie Stepan Goryachevskikh (39 saves), the U.S. hopes of repeating as gold medalist have been shaken.
"We'll have to play the entire game against the Czechs with the intensity we showed in the third period tonight," USA coach Scott Sandelin said. "And we need to eliminate all the turnovers we had."
Belarus was better at nearly every aspect of the game Wednesday, including holding the U.S. to 1-of-7 on the power play and offsetting that with a shorthanded goal by Alexi Efmienko at 9:14 of the first period.
His goal on a partial breakaway after an errant pass by Team USA in the offensive zone on the power play came against Schneider, who started in goal for the first time for Team USA. The freshman from Boston College gave up three goals on eight shots before being lifted for Montoya after Alexei Savin walked out from behind the net and whipped a shot through Schneider's legs just 2:10 into the second period.
Schneider also allowed a shot by Vadzim Karaha to trickle into the net off his arm at 15:38 of the opening period that extended the Belarus lead to 2-0.
Phil Kessel pulled Team USA to within 2-1 with his blast from the faceoff circle into the far corner of the net at 17:47 of the first period that narrowed the margin to 2-1.
But Savin's easy wraparound goal killed that momentum quickly in the second period.
If a shocking 3-1 lead for Belarus wasn't enough, Starhei Kukushkin greeted Montoya by beating him to the glove side from outside the blue line at 3:26 of the second period to make it 4-1. Then Andrei Kastsitsyn jumped on an errant pass off the wall from USA defenseman and team captain Ryan Suter to go the distance for an unassisted goal at 14:16, running the margin to 5-1.
That was more than enough to offset the third goal of the tournament by UND player Drew Stafford at 19:14 of the second period on a power play and Mike Brown's wrister from the right boards at 2:11 of the final period that closed the scoring.
Team USA outshot Belarus 21-10 in the third period and 42-26 for the game, but was upstaged by Goryachevskikh's goaltending and a three-point game from forward Kastisisyn, who had a goal and two assists and was named Belarus' player of the game.
"I had good luck," Goryachevskikh said through an interpreter.
Stafford, who now leads Team USA in goals with three one in each game chose not to dwell much on the stunner against Belarus.
"We've got to put it behind us and get ready for tomorrow," Stafford said.
Belarus had scored just four total goals in its first three tournament losses, then scored five in the first two periods against a U.S. team that most of the races to the puck and often mishandled the ones it did reach first.
Even a strong effort by Team USA in the first period wasn't enough to offset a four-goal deficit with the Belarus goalie, who came into the game with a 6.66 goals-against average in three tournament losses, making like a brick wall,.
"We need to come out for a full 60 minutes against the Czechs," Stafford said. "If we play like we did in the third period tonight for a full 60 minutes against the Czechs, I think we'll be fine."
Nobody from Team USA would say they overlooked Belarus, a team with minimal success in World Juniors play in any year.
"Any team can get goals and do well, especially in a tournament like this," Stafford said. "They got a lot of bounces, a lot of lucky bounces and took advantage of it."
When the game ended, a scuffle erupted between the teams with four players penalized, two from each side, with Andrei Karev of Belarus handed the a game misconduct and everyone else minors for roughing.
Belarus didn't miss a last chance to rub it in. As the last rumble was being broken up, a Belarus player looked at the U.S. players, pointed at his eyes, then up to the scoreboard where the final 5-2 margin of victory for Belarus told the true story of a battle won by tiny Belarus over the heavily favored U.S.
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