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Slow start Russia hangs on for 6-4 win over BelarusPosted: Friday February 15, 2002 3:15 PMUpdated: Saturday February 16, 2002 12:03 AM
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) -- Nikolai Khabibulin finally has the gold medal that was taken from him 10 years ago. If he plans to win another one in Utah, he'll need to stop more pucks than he did in Russia's debut. Sergei Fedorov and teenage sensation Ilya Kovalchuk each had a goal and an assist as Russia beat Belarus 6-4 Friday in the first match of the final round of Olympic men's hockey. Through most of their first game against the weakest team in their group, the Russians clearly showed their superiority -- but also made enough mistakes to keep Belarus in it. Russia's offensive prowess was no surprise, but their mediocre defense and penalty-killing concerned coach Slava Fetisov. "I'd love to have a three-week training camp right now so that we could work out the majority of things, but that's not possible," Fetisov said. "What I'm really interested in after this game is how different people played together, and what we'll do about it in the future."
Other than its backup goaltenders, Russia's roster is composed entirely of NHL players. Once the dominant power of Olympic hockey when the Soviet Union existed, Russia is many observers' favorite to win again in Salt Lake City, in no small part because of Khabibulin. On Thursday, Khabibulin -- perhaps the NHL's hottest goaltender this season -- was given a duplicate of the gold medal he won in 1992 as a third-string goalie on the Unified Team. The original medal was kept by his coach, who wanted it as a keepsake. A day later, Khabibulin was far from the "Bulin Wall" that many expected. He allowed two soft goals in a shaky first Olympic appearance, though the defenders in front of him also struggled. "I'm not too happy with the way I played," Khabibulin said. "Games here are going to be tough. We've got to tighten up and make some adjustments, but this was just the first game." Belarus is the only remaining team with no NHL forwards in its lineup, but it managed three power-play goals and 33 total shots -- 18 in the second period as Russia got a brief scare. Russia is grouped with the United States, Finland and Belarus for round-robin play in the first four days of the final round. No team will be eliminated during the round, which determines the seedings for the quarterfinals starting Wednesday. Sergei Samsonov, skating on a potent line with Fedorov and Kovalchuk, scored the game's first goal just 1:45 in. Russia also used brothers Pavel and Valeri Bure together on a line with Alexei Zhamnov, while Alexei Yashin -- who scored in the second period -- centered a line with Alexei Kovalev and Andrei Nikolishin. Russia dominated the flow of play and took nine shots in the first eight minutes, but Belarus evened the score when Igor Kravchuk left the net unguarded after a faceoff, allowing Oleg Antonenko to score. Zhamnov put the Russians back ahead with a power-play goal late in the period, and 18-year-old Kovalchuk got his first Olympic goal 21 seconds before intermission when his centering pass banked off a defender and into the net. Belarus, which qualified for the final round by going 2-1 in the preliminaries, got Anaheim's Ruslan Salei -- its only current NHL player -- back in its lineup. Salei's teammates never made it easy for Russia, and they controlled play for most of the second period after goalie Andrei Mezin stepped in for Sergei Shabanov. "I'm enjoying the atmosphere on this team," said Salei, who didn't play in the preliminary round. "It feels very unified, and we are getting better." Belarus pulled within 4-3 late in the second period when Khabibulin, who trained with many Belarussian players at a camp last summer, allowed an innocent wrist shot by Aleksei Kalyuzhny to get past him. But Russia put the game out of reach with goals from Boris Mironov and Fedorov early in the third. Salei scored the final goal with 1:37 to play when Khabibulin misplayed a shot from the blue line -- though it may have been deflected. Oleg Khmyl also scored for Belarus. "I have a feeling that because he spent the whole summer training with Belarus players, it's something we're beginning to feel," Fetisov said with a grin. "Everything he owed to the Belarus players for the summer camp, he paid back today."
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