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Belarus win over France assures final berth
By Alan Robinson
AP Sports Writer
PROVO, Utah — Vladimir Tsyplakov redirected a slap shot between French goalie Cristobal Huet's pads for the decisive goal, putting Belarus into the final round of Olympic hockey with a 3-1 victory Monday night.
Belarus (2-0) is assured of winning its four-team preliminary round pool even if it loses Wednesday to Switzerland (0-1-1). Ukraine can finish 2-1 by beating France (0-1-1), but it lost earlier to Belarus and thus would lose any tiebreaker.
Belarus and the winner of Tuesday's Latvia-Germany game will join Canada, the United States, the Czech Republic, Russia, Finland and Sweden in the final round beginning Friday.
Belarus also qualified for that round in the 1998 Olympics before finishing 2-4-1.
Tsyplakov gave Belarus its first lead at 16:25 of the second by putting his stick on Oleg Romanov's slap shot from the blue line, causing it to swerve before Huet could react.
Vasily Pankov prevented any late France comeback by scoring on a short breakaway at 17:56 of the third period after stealing the puck near the blue line.
Monday's game was much rougher than either team's initial game, with the feisty French playing far more physically than their reputation. During the second period, Denis Perez — a five-time Olympian — risked serious injury by diving in front of a slap shot from only a few feet away. He suffered a hand injury, but returned to play.
However, France was overaggressive at times, with Andrei Kovalev given a penalty shot midway through the second period after being hauled down in front of the net. But he missed when Huet stuck out his right pad to smother his shot, temporarily keeping the score tied.
Shortly before that, Belarus defenseman Igor Matushkin made the save of the tournament so far, swatting the puck away as it rolled across goalie Sergei Shabanov's shoulders — just before it could drop into the net.
France took a 1-0 lead in the first period on Maurice Rozenthal's third goal in two games, but Andrei Rasolko's goal tied it later in the period. Shabanov tightened up after that, making 22 saves, giving him 39 saves on 40 shots in two games.
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February 11, 2002
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