Blazing Belarusians knock out Ukraine

Belarus outskated, outhustled, and outskilled Ukraine tonight at Skonto Arena, earning a well deserved 9-1 win to remain in the thick of things in Group F. The power play factored in again as the team scored four times with the extra man, two of those goals coming on 5-on-3 situations.

Montreal Canadiens prospect Mikhail Grabovsky had a hat trick and Andrei Skabelka had a goal and five assists. Andrei Kostitsyn, also a potential future Canadiens star, added three assists.

"The key to our success is that we have to score on the power play, and the Grabovsky line has to produce," said Belarus Head Coach Glen Hanlon. "Both of those things happened tonight."

Belarus now has four points, while Ukraine is officially eliminated from possible quarter-final participation. Russia and Sweden lead the way with six and five points, respectively, and the Swiss have four along with Belarus, but have a game in hand. For now, Belarus sits above the Swiss because of a superior goals differential (+5 to +1). The top four teams in the group move on to the quarter-finals.

"Our goal was to try to improve from last year, where we placed 12th," said Hanlon.

Belarus plays Switzerland on Tuesday in a game that will likely decide that fourth and final spot.

Belarus opened the scoring at 10:36 while enjoying a two-man advantage made possible by a careless play on the part of Ukraine goalie Kostyantyn Simchuk. With the team down a man, Simchuk inadvertently fired the puck into the players' bench, resulting in a minor penalty and putting his team in a hole. Mikhail Grabovsky converted a nice pass from behind the net by beating Simchuk through the legs from in tight.

Belarus upped its lead to 2-0 at 2:11 of the second with Sergei Klymentiev in the penalty box. He was back in the lineup tonight after having his suspension reduced from two games to one, but Viktor Kostyuchenok made him pay the price by ripping a low shot in the slot past Simchuk in much the same way Grabovsky scored in the first.

The Belarusians blew the game open 26 seconds later by scoring again, this time on a scramble in front of Mezin, with Oleg Antonenko doing the damage.

They added a fourth goal, third on the power play and second while 5-on-3, at 15:47 when Grabovsky counted his second of the game, banging home a loose puck in another scramble around Simchuk's net. Klymentiev was one of he players in the box for Ukraine.

The second period was dominated by Belarus, so Ukraine was lucky to score at 19:47 when Yuriy Gunko drifted a point shot on goal that Mezin couldn't see.

Belarus made it 5-1 at 5:06 when Dmitry Dudik barged his way to the goal and managed to get a shot off while being weakly checked by Klymentiev, who was hardly having the kind of impact on the game he had hoped to upon being given the chance to play.

The romp was on when the Belarusians drew two more penalties off their speed on the rush and on another 5-on-3 chance they converted to make it 6-1. Kopat added a goal at 16:40 and Grabovsky completed the hat trick at 17:26. While he celebrated the goal, Ukrainian D-man Andrei Sryubko jumped Andrei Kostitsyn and started punching him in the head. Dudik closed out the scoring at 17:48. Then, with one second left in the game, Andriy Mikhnov started punching another Belarus player, trying to start a fight. It was not a pretty way for the Ukrainians to go out.

Ukraine plays its final game against Slovakia on Tuesday.

Grabovsky's hat trick in the game tied him with Sidney Crosby for the tournament lead in goals, with five apiece. Skabelka's six points launched him into a tie for second place in tournament scoring with Patrice Bergeron--both have eight points. Crosby leads the way with nine points.