2003 IIHF World Junior Championship

The Swiss Upends Belarus 4-2Beat Forster scored what proved to be the winner at 3:52 of the third period as Switzerland killed off five penalties in that period to defeat Belarus 4-2 in opening day action of the IIHF 2003 World Junior Championships in Halifax.

"It was a bad point for us," commented Swiss Coach Jakob Kolliker when asked about his team’s penalty trouble in the third period. "But that’s hockey and we handled it well."
Also scoring for the Switzerland team were Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Patrik Bartschi and Cyrill Buhler and Caryl Neuenschwander. Forster also added an assist for a two point outing and player of the game for Switzerland Andre Ambuhl picked up a pair of assists. Swiss goalie Tobias Stephan, a second-round draft choice of the Dallas Stars, stopped 23 of 25 shots he faced to pick up the win.

Scoring for Belarus were Mikhail Grabovski and Vadim Karaga. Karaga also picked up an assist for a two-point outing. Andrei Kastsitsyn dazzled the crowd with some outstanding stickhandling and individual play for the Belarus team.

After Grabovski opened the scoring for Belarus 1:22 into the opening period, it appeared the Belarus team could not get on track offensively even with the majority of power play opportunities.

Head coach Uladimir Melenchuk was not pleased with his team’s performance in the game stating, "I’m not satisfied with our first line. There are some guys on this team that are considered reliable but did not show up today. For us to win we need to have a team effort, not individuals."

With the score tied 2-2 in the third and the teams skating 4-on-4, Forster took the puck off a draw won by Ambuhl, beat the opposing defenseman to the outside and roofed a backhander on the short side past goalie Siarhei Rahouski’s glove.

After Forster gave his team the lead, the Swiss had to kill off four more penalties throughout the period to secure the win.

"We knew we had to win this game so we played good positionally, took the body, and shot the puck out," said the Phoenix Coyote draft pick about how his team dealt with the penalties in the third.

Switzerland will now have a day off to prepare for their match up against the U.S. on Saturday. Belarus return to action tomorrow against Slovakia in what will be the Slovaks first game of the tournament.

by John Mayich

Box Score		BLR	1	1	0	2	0
Compte		SUI	2	0	2	4	0

Scoring/Buts : 12.04 1 - 2 EQ SUI 12. BUHLER, Cyrill (17. PETER, Emanuel) 11.30 1 - 1 EQ SUI 11. BARTSCHI, Patrik (5. BLINDENBACHER, Severin 10. AMBUHL, Andrei) 01.22 1 - 0 EQ BLR 26. GRABOVSKI, Mikhail (9. KARAGA, Vadim Penalties/Pénalités : 18.14 2 min BLR 3. KARSHUNOU, Andrei HOOK 17.07 2 min BLR 26. GRABOVSKI, Mikhail TRIP 17.07 2 min SUI 3. DALLENBACH, Juerg INTRF 03.02 2 min SUI 10. AMBUHL, Andrei HOLD

Scoring/Buts : 26.03 2 - 2 EQ BLR 9. KARAGA, Vadim (15. ZHYDKIKH, Aliaksander) Penalties/Pénalités : 40.00 2 min BLR 21. ZAKHARAU, Kanstantsin CROSS 38.28 2 min SUI 13. CHRISTEN, Gregory HI-ST 37.56 2 min BLR 27. YUDZIN, Dzmitry KNEE 31.34 2 min SUI 17. PETER, Emanuel ROUGH 22.05 2 min SUI 5. BLINDENBACHER, Severin HOOK

Scoring/Buts : 43.52 2 - 3 EQ SUI 29. FORSTER, Beat (10. AMBUHL, Andrei) 55.32 2 - 4 EQ SUI 24. NEUENSCHWANDER, Caryl (5. BLINDENBACHER, Severin) Penalties/Pénalités : 56.13 2 min SUI 19. GERBER, Roland INTRF 52.22 2 min SUI 18. GLOOR, Kevin HOLD 48.57 2 min SUI 10. AMBUHL, Andrei ELBOW 46.16 2 min SUI T. Team SUI TOO-M 43.47 2 min BLR 28. HLINKIN, Artsiom HI-ST 43.29 2 min SUI 14. CONZ, Florian CROSS

Players of the Game	BLR	Unavailable
Joueurs du partie	SUI	Unavailable
Goaltenders	BLR	2. RAHOUSKI, Siarhei
Gardiens de but	SUI	30. STEPHAN, Tobias
Shots on Goal by	Shots on Goal by	1st/1re	2nd/2e	3rd/3e	Final
Shots on Goal by	BLR	4	12	9	25
Tirs au but par	SUI	16	10	8	34
Officials	Referee/Arbitre	MATSUOKA, Rob
Officiels	Linesmen/Juges des lignes	FONSELIUS, Stefan TAKULA, Leo
Attendance/Assistance	1,951

Switzerland Looks to Bring Home Medal

The 2003 IIHF World Junior Championship gets underway at 2pm AT Thursday with Belarus facing Switzerland in Sydney in Group A action.

Switzerland will be looking to earn its second medal in World Junior Championship history after falling in the Bronze medal game last year to Finland 5-1. Belarus enters the tournament hoping to improve on last years ninth place finish where they avoided relegation by defeating France in a shootout.

Belarus will have an uphill battle against a strong Swiss team that defeated a heavily favoured Finnish squad on Sunday night 6-2 in exhibition play. Belarus finished tied with Germany 2-2 in their only exhibition match.

The Swiss team will be looking for some strong goaltending from Dallas Stars draft pick Tobias Stephan (2nd round, 34th overall). Stephan was in goal for the Swiss team’s fourth place finish last year in the Czech Republic.

Also in the line-up for the Swiss team will be physical defenseman Beat Forster, drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes in 2001. (4th round, 78th overall) Another Phoenix prospect, Severin Blindenbacher, will join Forster on the blueline.

Patrik Bartschi, a right-winger who was third in team scoring at last year’s tournament (7GP-2G-2A) as a 17 year-old, will be looking to improve on those totals. Also up front for the team will be 2003 NHL draft prospect Kevin Romy who scored 14 points (9G-5A) in eight games as a 16 year-old at the 2002 World Under-18 Championship.

Team Belarus will ice a young team with some experience this year as last year’s group featured two 16 year-olds and two 17 year-olds. One of those 16 year-olds from last year’s team is Andrei Kastsitsyn who led the team in scoring at last year’s tournament with three goals.

The team will also feature netminder Vitali Arystau who will be playing in his fourth World Junior tournament. Arystau made his debut at the age of 15 in the 1999 tournament hosted by Winnipeg.

Team Belarus will next face Slovakia on Friday in an 8pm AT contest. Switzerland will have Friday off and return to action at 4pm AT to face the USA.

by: John Mayich