Belarus is one of the oldest teams in this tournament and Slovakia is the second-youngest. In both teams’ first game at the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, Belarus had a significant edge in World Championship experience but, in the first period, the young Slovaks skated circles around their older opponents. They built up a 3-0 lead 11 minutes in, led 4-0 with seven minutes to go, then survived a late scare and won 5-2.
“We were two teams,” said Slovak head coach Craig Ramsay. “One that was aggressive at the start. We chased and we attacked and our power play was really effective. Then when we started to get fancy, we made some funny plays and gave up a lot of chances but fortunately our goaltender was really good.”
Kristian Pospisil, 25, scored two goals, Peter Cehlarik, also 25, recorded a goal and two assists, and 17-year-old defenceman Simon Nemec got into the action as well with an assist. Goaltender Branislav Konrad, who at 33 was Slovakia’s oldest player in the game, stopped 32 of 34 shots for the win.
“We just played our game, that’s why we had success in the first two periods,” said Pospisil. “Then we took some penalties. We have to learn from it that. If we play 5-on-5 we can beat anybody.”
The Slovaks opened the scoring at 3:53 when Nemec passed to Pospisil, who blew the shot through a screen and goaltender Konstantin Shostak.
Less than five minutes later, Mikhail Stefanovich drew a double-minor for high-sticking and the Slovak power play made Belarus pay double. Cehlarik made it 2-0 when he one-timed a pass from Martin Gernat into the top corner. Then at 11:02, Pospisil teed up another shot from the point and scored for the second time, finding the same corner of the net as Cehlarik. The Belarusians claimed goalie interference but the goal was allowed to stand.
At that point, Belarusian coach Mikhail Zakharov had seen enough and lifted Shostak in favour of backup goalie Danny Taylor. Shostak was beaten five times on eight shots and the veteran Taylor seemed to bring a level of stability to the Belarusian crease, stopping 25 of the 26 shots he would face the rest of the way.
At that point, perhaps frustration began to set in among the Belarusian players and with less than five minutes to go in the opening period, Nikita Komarov ran Nemec into the boards in the neutral zone away from the puck. Komarov was assessed a major penalty and a game misconduct for interference and Nemec needed to be helped from the ice, although he would return.
“We took too many penalties,” said Stefanovich. “I think we had 11 minutes in that first period and it’s hard to play at this level when you have so much time on the PK. Then, when we had chances at even strength, we couldn’t take advantage.”
About the Komarov incident, Stefanovich continued: “We weren’t told to play hard, but we were losing, and I think he wanted to make a big hit to shake things up. Maybe he got a bit behind the player and that’s why it was a major penalty.”
Thanks to that and a delay-of-game penalty, Slovakia spent the end of the end of the first period and the start of the second on the power play, including 5-on-3 for a full two minutes, and the rink continued to be tilted in their favour. However, Belarus would eventually start to press and get some chances.
“We had a lot of chances on the power play and that gave us good momentum,” said Cehlarik. “Our special teams were very good, both the power play and penalty killing. But I think 5-on-5 there were a lot of things we have to work on.”
In the 28th minute, Platt had a chance to get Belarus on the board when he was sprung on a breakaway. He faked a slapper and tried to go wide but Konrad got just enough of his stick on Platt’s that the puck slid just wide of the far post.
It appeared that Belarus had gotten on the board with less than five minutes remaining in the middle frame when a long wrister from captain Yegor Shangarovich sailed through a crowd and beat Konrad, but upon video review, it was determined that forward Andrei Belevich was guilty of goaltender interference and it remained a three-goal difference.
“On the disallowed goal, our player had one foot in the crease and as I understand it, the IIHF has slightly different rules here, that’s not allowed,” said Sharangovich. “Playing 5-on-5 we were OK, we had chances; if we score there, the game turns out different. But we couldn’t score until the end of the third.”
Slovakia had two 17-year-olds in this game. In addition to Nemec, Juraj Slafkovsky got in the game and almost scored midway through the second period when he jumped on a loose puck off an attacking-zone faceoff and got a quick shot away that Taylor had to be sharp on.
“I thought they played extremely well for most of the game,” Ramsay said about his young players. “But everyone, including the young players, got too excited and started running around. It’s about going with speed and being aggressive, but sometimes you have to know when to hold back. But they showed that they belong here.”
When the Slovaks scored their fourth goal of the game on a rush with Marek Hrivik providing a nice finish, Zakharov gambled and challenged the play for offside. For the third time in the game, the outcome of the review was not to his liking, his team was assessed a bench minor for delay of game and Slovakia was firmly in the driver’s seat.
With 6:35 to play, Konrad’s shutout bid was spoiled when Stefanovich banged in a rebound after a shot from Sergei Kostitsyn, and then Sharangovich made it a two-goal game just 57 seconds later when he intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and skated in alone, beating Konrad with a wrister.
With just over a minute to play, Marek Daloga threw his stick in his own zone and Belarus was awarded a penalty shot, giving them a chance to get even closer. On the shot, Sharangovich weaved in but Konrad denied him with a pad save.
In the dying seconds, Cehlarik scored into the empty Belarusian net to claim his third point of the game and secure the victory.
