USA too much for Belarus

10 May 2012 | Mika Leino

Belarus had a good fight against USA but most likely lost chances for QF's when losing by 3-5.

USA and Belarus made an entertaining game in Helsinki. USA's game was like rollercoaster, ups and downs, but their routine in the third period as just a bit too much for Belarus.

USA got that kind of a start to the game what was expected. They scored twice within 6.31 by Justin Abdelkader and Cam Atkinson. Then happened what happens so often when a team got an easy and fast lead in the game; USA lost its concentration and forgot hard working and Belarus got back into the game. Some four minutes before the end of the first period Kalyuzhny scored with a nice deflection from Dmitri Korobov's shot from the blueline.

At the end of first and beginning of the second USA had some penalties and Belarus used their chance when Alexei Ugarov equalized the game. After that goal Belarus had several chances to score some more goals. Best chance had Kalyuzhny who robbed when playing shorthanded the puck from Cam Fowler but couldn't score on a breakaway. Jimmy Howard kept USA in the game when making several good saves.

In the third period USA found its playing again. Bobby Ryan and Paul Stastny secured three points for USA before Kovyrshin scored a consolation goal for Belarus.

Belarus doesn't have realistic chances for quarterfinals anymore after this lost. However they have played good games and losing games only narrowly. Kari Heikkilä's team has skillfull players and one of the best goalies Vitali Koval as a backbone.