MINSK, 15 May (BelTA) – Belarus have lost 1-5 to Canada in Helsinki and ended up 14th in the overall world championship standings for the second straight year, BelTA has learnt. Entering the tournament Belarus’ main task was to advance into the quarterfinals.
Canada 5-1 Belarus (1-1, 3-0, 1-0), Helsinki, Hartwall Arena, 9,140 in attendance.
Canadians opened the scoring at 2:16 into the game. Belarusians tied the game at 14:25. Andrei Kostitsyn outmuscled O’Reilly for the puck in the Canadian end, and whipped a pass across to the other side of the net to Yevgeni Kovyrshin who put the puck in front where Sergei Kostitsyn made a nice deflection over the glove of Cam Ward.
Canada scored three more in the second period, with one during a five-on-three power play. Ryan Getzlaf's point shot bounced off Corey Perry’s skate to find the twine. Getzlaf then made it 3-1 at 12:46.
A minute later Andrei Kostitsyn was penalized 5+20 for misconduct. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made a use of a five-minute power play to get the fourth goal for Canada.
A fight broke out immediately after it and ended up in several penalties for players from both the teams.
Andrei Stas had a chance to narrow the gap in the third, but the puck hit the bar. Ryan O’Reilly, however, jumped at his chance and sent home the final goal of the game.
Before the final whistle two Canadians, Luke Schenn and Marc Methot, received five-minute majors and game misconducts for boarding.
Now the history of Belarus-Canada worlds meetings count 15, with Belarus keeping 2 victories, a draw and 12 defeats (overall goal difference 35-84).
At the 2012 IIHF World Championship Belarus won only once (3-2 against Kazakhstan) and lost six games against Finland (0-1), Switzerland (2-3), USA (3-5), Slovakia (1-5) and Canada (1-5).
Group H standings (Helsinki):
1. Canada - 19 points (7 matches; 35-15 goal difference)
2. Finland - 15 (7; 21-14)
3. USA - 13 (6; 27-15)
4. Slovakia - 12 (6; 16-9)
5. France - 9 (6; 17-27)
6. Switzerland - 6 (6; 14-16)
7. Belarus - 3 (7; 11-23)
8. Kazakhstan - 1 (7; 11-33).
Canada, the USA and Finland have already qualified for the quarterfinals. The winner of Slovakia-France match which is underway will get the fourth spot in the quarters. Kazakhstan was eliminated from the top division.
Italy finished 8th in Group H located in Stockholm and are now relegated for 2013. All four quarter finalists are already known: Russia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Norway.
Group S standings (Stockholm):
1. Russia - 21 points (7 matches; 27-8 goal difference)
2. Sweden - 15 (6; 25-15)
3. Czech Republic - 11 (6; 16-10)
4. Norway - 10 (6; 27-17)
5. Latvia - 6 (6; 11-15)
6. Germany - 6 (6; 13-23)
7. Denmark - 4 (6; 11-17).
8. Italy - 2 (7; 6-31).
|
