Russia Shuts Out Belarus in Pre-Olympic Tournament Match

The Olympic Athletes of Russia met up with Belarus in a pre-Olympic tournament match, defeating their opponents by a shutout score of 3-0.

Kirill Kaprizov seems to take his game to a new level when he represents Russia, and it showed when he scored the first goal at 8:31 in the opening period. Kaprizov would take a feed from Nikita Nesterov before sending a quick wrist shot between the legs of Mikhail Karnaukhov, giving the Russians the 1-0 lead.

The Minnesota Wild prospect wasn’t done. Four minutes into the second, Kaprizov would score a beautiful rebound goal after taking a pass from Sergei Mozyakin, picking up his own rebound after a nice stop by Karnaukhov to make it 2-0.

North American fans were looking forward to Rebounds were the name of the game. Pavel Datsyuk, a former star with the Detroit Red Wings, picked up the puck after Slava Voynov was stopped, one-timing it past the glove of Karnaukhov to make it 3-0, a lead the Russians would not allow Belarus to put a dent in.

Belarus will meet up with a U23 edition of the Russian national team on Thursday, while the Russians will take on South Korea just days before the real Olympic tournament on February 10th.

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