Mezin's miracle

Lightly regarded goalie stonewalls Swedish superstars

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) -- To understand the magnitude of Belarus' 4-3 victory over Sweden, consider the resume of Andrei Mezin.

A goalie so nondescript he never progressed beyond Rochester of the AHL, Mezin helped engineer the biggest hockey upset in a generation as he outplayed one of the sport's best goalies, Tommy Salo, on Wednesday.

"It was too tough for me to make it in the NHL," said Mezin, who has played for such teams as the Las Vegas Thunder and the Fort Wayne Comets without ever getting a shot at the big-time.

Well, the big-time has arrived.

A team filled with unknown European pros and U.S. minor leaguers eliminated an international powerhouse loaded with NHL all-stars, winning on a 70-foot shot that bounced wildly off Salo with 2:24 remaining.

Belarus-Sweden Breakdown How better to describe Belarus' stunning 4-3 upset of Sweden than Exhibit A as to why you play the game? In competition, anything can happen. Especially in single-elimination events. And that is what this game turned into -- an event. And one in which Belarus found a way to slow up the high-flying Swedes between the blue lines. Canada-Belarus Preview The Canadians have enough firepower to bury Belarus, but their forecheck will be vital. They have to be resolute in their chip-and-charge mentality, getting pucks deep on the Belarussians blueliners and outworking them for possession.

The only comparable upsets in Olympic hockey history are the United States' 4-3 victory over the Soviets in 1980 and Britain's 2-1 win over Canada in 1936, although nine members of the British team were raised in Canada.

"I think it's unbelievable," said Ruslan Salei, Belarus' only current NHL player. "Absolutely incredible."

In Sweden, they were using similarly descriptive words, only in far less happy terms. After being the only team to win its three games in pool play, after beating Canada and the Czech Republic, Sweden, seen as a strong gold medal possibility, lost to ... Belarus?

The Swedish TT news agency called the loss "Sweden's worst ever Olympic fiasco," comparing it to the Swedish national soccer team's loss to Japan in the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Belarus, playing its seventh game in 12 days, gave no indication this was about to happen. It had lost its previous two games, to the United States and Finland, by 8-1 scores, and it had been outscored 22-6 in its three pool-play games.

But, impossibly, Mezin made 44 saves and Vladimir Kopat scored on the bouncing 70-footer in the closing minutes.

"The shot him me somewhere around my neck, and I thought I could get a glove on it," Salo said. "I didn't feel it hit my back, but somehow it went in."

And, somehow, Sweden is out, upset in the quarterfinals for the second straight Olympics. In 1998, the defending gold medalists were upset by Finland 2-1.

"We should have put this team away in the first or second period," captain Mats Sundin said.

Now, Mezin will get his wish, to play Canada and all of its stars in an Olympic game.

"Canada is the dream team forever," he said.

Not in Belarus, it's not.

"For sure, it is a miracle for us," Mezin said. "But sometimes a gun without bullets can shoot, and that was us. We've made our place in history."

 

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