Switzerland took second win and is on the way to QF

After early minutes Switzerland took control of the game. Their fast and skillful forwards created a permanent pressure on Belarus side of the ice. Big and slow Belarus defenders clearly didn't have enough time to open the play and all they could do was throw the puck into to the neutral zone. This paid off for Switzerland after seven minutes when they had a three against two attack and Simon Moser lightened the red lamp behind the goal.

After getting one goal lead Switzerland gave a bit up  the tempo and this suited well for Belarus. After 10.26 minutes defender Vladimir Denisov brought the puck into Swiss zone, left it to Andrei Stepanov whose marvelous pass found Alexei Ugarov who could shoot into the empty net. Goalie Tobias Stephan didn't have a chance.

An old Canadian wisdom says that "beware of the next shifts after a goal". This didn't Belarus remember and only after a minute and a half Swiss took the lead again with Moser's second goal from a rebound of Kevin Romy's shot.

Simon Moser scored twice tonight
Photo: Marco Bertolini

In the second period Belarus got better and better into the game and already after 1.34 after some nice puck moving from Dmitri Korobov and Alexei Kalyuzhny forward Konstantin Koltsov equalized through the pipe hole of Stephan. This was a goal which Stephan certainly would like to have back. It felt like every time Switzerland gave up a little bit and lost their concentration Belarus scored a goal. Switzerland couldn't quite keep up their good tempo and that allowed also team Belarus some chances. The final grittiness with scoring chances was still missing from both sides and therefore score remained 2-2. Also Vitali Koval at Belarus goalmouth continued there where he left against Finland.

In the last period Switzerland got some penalty troubles when Luca Sbisa took two penalties within three minutes. That didn't help Belarus to score but after Sbisa's second penalty Nikolai Stasenko and Alexander Kulakov had serious problems understanding each other behind their own goal. Damien Brunner said thank you, passed the puck into front of the goal where Kevin Romy roofed the puck. This was also the game winning goal although Belarus received still a penalty shot when 4.36 left of the game. Swiss unlucky star Luca Sbisa hold Mihail Grabovski from behind in a breakaway and penalty shot was a correct call from the referee. However Grabovski's attempt was a weak one and Stephan stopped the shot with his blocker.

Swiss fans can celebrate the second win in a row
Photo: Mika Leino

Belarus had a good game but it just wasn't enough. Anyway it is nice to see that they are getting good games and coming closer to teams like Switzerland, Germany, Latvia and maybe also Slovakia. There are still some tactical points and game system to improve but maybe within two years when they are hosting WC we might see a really good team Belarus.

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