By Igor Leshin
After the first match against the Germans, held on April 5th at Minsk Arena, which ended in victory for the Belarusian squad (4:3 in shootouts), coach Andrey Skabelka changed the lineup, as he had promised. Vitaly Belinsky took the place of goalkeeper Stepan Goryachevskikh while defenders Vladimir Denisov and Oleg Misyul were replaced by Pavel Kazakevich and Ilya Kaznadei; Yevgeny Dadonov was replaced by Artem Kisly, in attack.
The new lineup, or fatigue, or lack of training on the part of the German squad, who gathered together only a couple of days before leaving for Belarus, led to Belarus scoring two goals in the second segment. They widened the gap to 4:1 in the third segment but penalties in the end of the meeting (disciplinary 20-minute penalty till the end of the match was applied to one of Alexander Andrievsky’s team coaches) left Belarus 3 down to 5; the Germans then closed the gap to 2:4.
Leading up to the World Championships, Belarus will play another four matches in the European Ice Hockey Challenge. From April 12th-13th, in Bobruisk and Zhlobin, Andrey Skabelka’s squad will face Slovakia and, from April 19th-20th, they’ll play Latvia, in Riga. The Belarusian team will also perform in the International Slovakia Cup Tournament (April 25th-26th, in Bratislava). On May 1st, the team will then go to the World Championship in Sweden.
