Belarus grabbed a two-goal first-period lead and kept on rolling in a 4-3 upset over the Czech Republic in the opener of the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship at Umea’s A3 Arena.
In goal, it was a battle of U18 rookies, and Belarus goalie Alexei Kolosov was heroic, outshining Czech starter Jan Bednar, who was pulled after two periods. The Czechs outshot Belarus 50-34.
"In general, I am satisfied with my performance, but I always want to be better," said Kolosov. "The win is the most important thing tonight."
Yevgeni Oxentyuk had a goal and an assist and Vladislav Kolyachonok and Yegor Buyalski also scored for Belarus on Thursday. Ilya Usov chipped in a pair of helpers.
"It was a good game, a hard game for the first game of the tournament," said Buyalski. "The whole team was excited. The future holds lots of games. We'll be ready."
Martin Has, Jan Mlcak and Filip Koffer replied for the Czechs. It was the first Czech loss ever to Belarus at the U18 Worlds. The Czechs won 5-1 in 2002, 5-2 in 2006, and 7-4 in 2017.
Czech head coach Alois Hadamczik fell short in his U18 debut. The 66-year-old, of course, is no stranger to IIHF competition. He guided the Czech Olympic team to a bronze medal in Turin in 2006, as well as back-to-back bronzes at the 2011 and 2012 Worlds. This is his first IIHF tournament as a head coach since the 2014 Sochi Olympics."It was a little bit of a problem for us to get to the net," said Has. "I think we have to work on that for the next game."
The Belarusians couldn’t have asked for a better start. Right off the opening faceoff, Usov grabbed the puck behind the Czech net and sent it out front to Oxentyuk, who slipped it past Bednar’s right skate just 12 seconds in. Talk about a confidence-builder!
Belarus promptly ran into penalty trouble with two consecutive minors, but Kolosov held down the fort. Oxentyuk continued to key the offense with his playmaking on a late-period Belarusian power play. Kolyachonok, the Belarusian captain, took a centre-point shot with the man advantage to make it 2-0 at 17:52.
Early in the second period, Vitali Pinchuk thought he might have gotten the third Belarus goal with a nice backhand move, but Czech blueliner Ondrej Volrab swept the puck off the blue line just in the nick of time. Video review confirmed the call and the Czech bench whooped it up.
The Czech defence then got its team back in the game. On the power play, assistant captain Has cut the deficit to 2-1 on a shot from the right point at 3:21. Mlcak blew a rising shot past Kolosov at 6:30.
Belarus didn’t wilt and die. Oxentyuk took a page out of Wayne Gretzky’s playbook, stickhandling behind the Czech net before feeding Buyalski out front, and the Moose Jaw Warriors rookie celebrated after beating Bednar high to the glove at 9:43.
"I am so happy, so happy," said Buyalski. "Because it was 2-2 and to score a goal was great."
Buyalski came looking for more on a Belarusian power play late in the middle frame, but couldn't cash in. However, just seconds later, Sergei Kuznetsov got the puck behind the Czech net and whipped it over to Pinchuk, who promptly found Belov in front for the 4-2 marker at 17:19.
"We sat down in the locker room after the first and the coaches came and told us that we have to play much better," said Has. "I think that worked in the first half of the second period. But then we made a couple of bad penalties and they scored from them. It's hard to come back."
In the third period, Lukas Parik replaced Bednar between the Czech pipes. Parik foiled a dipsy-doodling Valentin Demchenko when he cut in from the right side near the midway mark of the final stanza. At the other end, Kolosov stymied multiple attempts off a Czech line rush.
The Czechs made it 4-3 with 7:20 remaining on Koffer's floater from the right point through traffic. Pushing desperately for the equalizer, they pulled their goalie with under a minute left, but the Belarusians bore down defensively and celebrated the win.
Belarus, which is playing in the elite division for the third straight year, is aiming to improve on its all-time best fifth-place finish in 2002. The former Soviet republic came eighth at last year's tournament in Russia.
The Belarusians take on defending champion Finland on Friday, while the Czechs will look to beat Switzerland on Saturday.
"We need not to feel relief after this game," said Kolosov. "We need to celebrate a little bit, and then start to concentrate on the next game already tonight."
