AP News, May 1st, 2007
Belarus and Denmark advanced to the qualifying round of the hockey world championships by getting their first wins of the tournament Tuesday.
Oleg Antonenko and Aleksei Kulakov each had a goal and an assist in helping Belarus beat Austria 5-2 in a Group B game, and Kim Staal scored two goals in Denmark's 4-3 victory over Ukraine in Group D in Moscow.
"Both teams were in the same position. We wanted to stay alive," Belarus coach Curt Fraser said. "I thought the game would be much closer. I am very, very happy for our team. There was a great weight on their shoulders."
Austria and Ukraine are both 0-3 and must now play in the relegation round to avoid dropping out of the world's elite division.
Russia was to play Finland and the United States faced the Czech Republic later Tuesday in showdowns between undefeated teams.
Belarus took an early lead when Andrei Glebov shot through a crowd on a power play to beat Austrian goalie Reinhard Divis on the stick side barely three minutes into the game. Dmitry Dudik knocked in his own rebound at 17:48 to make it 2-0.
Austrian defenseman Andre Lakos scored on a power play with 1:20 left in the first period. He scored again less than five minutes into the next period to make it 2-2.
The Austrians were hit by a string of penalties, and Ugarov and Antonenko converted two of the power plays. Kulakov closed out the scoring in the final period.
In Moscow, Staal gave Denmark a 3-1 lead in the first period when he took a pass in the slot, spun around and fired a backhand past Ukraine goaltender Oleksandr Fedorov at 13:13.
Ukraine's Oleksandr Matviichuk scored 26 seconds later to cut the lead to 3-2.
Staal, who plays for the Milwaukee Admirals, scored on the power play at 10:36 of the second period to give Denmark a 4-2 lead.
Roman Salnikov cut the lead to 4-3 midway through the third.
"We knew coming in that Russia and Finland would be tough and that this was a game we needed to win," said Denmark forward Frans Neilsen, who plays for the New York Islanders. "We didn't want to go to the relegation round so this was a huge win for us."
