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Posted: Wed February 18, 1998 at 4:06 a.m EST Russia 4, Belarus 1 -------------------Valeri Kamensky and Andrei Kovalenko scored 2:31 apart spanning the first and second periods and Russia advanced to the Olympic semifinals with a 4-1 victory over Belarus. Pavel Bure and Alexei Morozov added goals 41 seconds apart early in the third period as Russia opened a 4-0 lead. The Russians, shut out of the medals at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer and every World Championship since then, will face the Sweden - Finland winner in the semifinals. Sergei Erkovich had the lone goal for Belarus, which suffered its fourth straight loss after going 2-0-1 in the preliminary round. Russia killed two Belarus power plays in the first period before Kamensky got his first goal of the tournament with one minute remaining. He took a pass from Alexei Yashin and put a short wrist shot past goaltender Andrei Mezin. Kovalenko chipped a rebound of Sergei Fedorov's shot just under the crossbar 91 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0. Mikhail Shtalenkov, making his second straight start for Russia, stopped all 17 shots he faced over the first two periods. Russia broke it open early in the third. Bure got his fourth goal of the tournament at 2:38 and Alexei Morozov, an NHL rookie whose third-period goal helped defeat Finland on Sunday, tallied at 3:19 to make it 4-0. Belarus, which was 0-for-7 on the power play, spoiled Shtalenkov's shutout bid just under a minute later when Erkovich scored his second goal of the tournament. Mezin finished with 31 saves and helped kill all five Russian power plays. While all but one member of Team Russia is an NHL veteran, Belarus had only two players with NHL experience -- Vladimir Tsyplakov of the Los Angeles Kings and Ruslan Salei of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
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