Russia-2 wins Polesie Cup

13 Nov 2011 | Irina Goroshko

Russia-2 beat Slovenia 3:0 and won Polesie Cup. Belarus lost to Denmark 2:8 and finished the home tournament in the 4th place.

Mikhail Varnakov, Anton Glinkin and Alexander Nikulin scored for Russia. Russia-2 outshot Slovenia 46-12 and had 8 penalty minutes while Slovenia had 18. The Russian goaltender Ivan Kasutin earned the shutout.

So Russia-2 won all 3 matches in Gomel and wins Polesie Cup.

"We allowed only one goal in three matches and I’m happy of this result. I thank my players for their game and the discipline" – the head coach of the Russia-2 team Andrei Nazarov said at the press-conference.

"We want to participate in such tournament every year if Russian hockey federation agrees" – he added.

Belarus lost to Denmark 2-8. Sergei Drozd scored for Belarus in the first period and Aleksandr Kachan in the second. Belarus outshot Denmark 42-27 but allowed 8 goals, 7 of them were scored by Danish players in power play. Morten Madsen, Julian Jakobsen and Kim Staal scored twice. Jesper Jensen and Olafur Gunnarsson scored too.

Per Bäckman, the head coach of the Denmark team, described the match as a nonstandard and unusual.

"I worked as a coach for 32 years and I don't remember my players ever scored in power play so much" – he said.

The Belarus coach Kari Heikkilä was’t very disappointed of his team.

"It is difficult for them to get used for me and my style of the hockey for the short time" – he explained.

The Belarus team lost all three games in Polesie Cup and finished fourth. It was Kari Heikkilä’s debut as a head coach of the Belarus national team.

The first place and the Cup went to Russia-2. Denmark was 2nd, Slovenia 3rd.

The best players of the tournament were announced:
Goalkeeper – Andrej Hocevar (Slovenia)
Defender – Anton Belov (Russia)
Forward – Maxim Pestushko (Russia)
Bombardir (The points leader) – Julian Jakobsen (Denmark)