Belarus and Switzerland win opening games at Arosa Challenge

19 Dec 2014 | Andreas Reiner

While Belarus beat Slovakia in the afternoon game, Switzerland had to go to overtime to beat Norway.

Yevgeni Nogachyov opened the score for Belarus in the 27th minute on a powerplay and left goalie Hudacek without a chance. The game went scoreless until the 51st minute when it was Andrei Stepanov with a slapshot from the blue line to beat the Slovakian goalie a second time. Michel Miklik's goal in the 57th minute came to late as the Slovaks were unable to turn around the game and lost their opening game 2:1.

In the evening game, Switzerland had a quick start, Inti Pestoni scored unassisted in the 3rd minute but the Swiss had problems keeping the upper hand in the game. Severin Blindenbacher scored the second goal on a 5-on-3 powerplay in the 25th minute. Now the Norwegians finally seemed to have woken up when Tommy Kristiansen on an assist by Sorvik scored the first goal for the Scandinavians in the 34th minute. Just 4 minutes later the Norwegians got the equalizer when Patrik Thoresen scored on Tobias Stephan. In the third period, the game pace slowed down, no penalties and no goals and so the overtime had to decide. In the 64th minute it was youngster Denis Hollenstein scored the game winning goal on an assist by Andres Ambühl and wins 3-2.

The Arosa Challenge continues tomorrow with the game Switzerland - Belarus in the afternoon and Norway-Slovakia for the evening game.