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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow
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Imoo comes up big as Japan ties Belarus in men's hockey
(Big Hat, Nagano City)
14:00 BLR 2-2 JPN
18:00 ITA 5-2 AUT
(Aqua Wing, Nagano City)
14:00 KAZ 4-3 SVK
18:00 GER 2-0 FRA
Imoo comes up big as Japan ties Belarus
The Japanese men's hockey team, backed by the spectacular goaltending of Dusty Imoo, skated to a 2-2 tie Tuesday against Belarus in the final game of the qualifying round of the men's hockey tournament of the Nagano Olympic Winter Games.
Following a heartbreaking defeat to France on Monday, Japan scored two power-play goals and played their best game of the three-game qualifying tournament against the heavily favored Belarus squad.
Japan, 1-9 with the extra man prior to Tuesday's game, will play one more game for 13th and 14th place Thursday to determine their overall ranking in the tournament.
Imoo, who played well in the loss to France after sitting out the opening game against Germany, had the hot hand again, turning away the relentless Belarus attack throughout the game. Belarus outshot Japan in the game by a margin of 44-10.
Down 2-1 in the second period, Ryan Kuwabara shoveled the puck past Belarus goalie Aleksandr Shumidub to tie the game at 14 minutes and 23 seconds into the period.
Shin Yahata got the puck out from behind the net to Akihito Sugisawa who set up Kuwabara standing at the side of the net for the power-play goal.
Oleg Romanov scored the first goal of the game for Belarus at 12 minutes and 36 seconds into the first period on a wrist shot to the top corner, beating Imoo on the stick side.
Japan then tied it up with under a minute remaining in the first when Matthew Kabayama's floater deflected off a Belarus defender and got by Shumidub.
Japan played well in all three games of the qualifying tournament, their first Olympic appearance since Innsbruck in 1976, and Japan's coach Bjorn Kinding said he was pleased with the team's performance.
''To be competitive is a victory for us. We were competitive in all three games so I'm very pleased. The Japan Ice Hockey Federation expects an immense impact on the popularity of the game from these Olympics,'' Kinding said.
Belarus defenseman Ruslan Salei, who plays for the National Hockey League's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, was also impressed with the performance of the Japanese team.
''We saw last night's game and they played well. They have fast, highly skilled players. They were all over the ice today and their goalie had an amazing game,'' Ruslan said. (Kyodo News)
Koelzig shuts down France as Germany wins 2-0
Olaf Koelzig stopped every shot he faced Tuesday in Germany's 2-0 win over France in the third and final game of the qualifying round of the men's ice hockey tournament at the Nagano Olympic Winter Games.
Unfortunately for Germany, Koelzig's arrival came one day after the Germans were defeated by Belarus 8-2, dashing their hopes of advancing beyond the preliminary round.
Koelzig, an all-star goalie with the North American National Hockey League's Washington Capitals was not allowed to join his national team until Tuesday, the last day of the qualifying round.
''I got to Tokyo airport before the game against Belarus yesterday. We hung around the VIP lounge and caught some updates on TV. It was 5-2, and I almost felt like going to the gate and flying back home,'' Koelzig said after the game against France.
Uwe Krupp of the Colorado Avalanche and Marco Sturm of the San Jose Sharks also joined the German squad for the game against France.
Mark McKay opened the scoring for Germany at seven minutes and 46 seconds into the second period when he converted a pass from Peter Draisaitl.
Draisaitl also scored on a pass from Krupp with less than two minutes left in the game.
The former Soviet republics of Belarus and Kazakstan advanced to the final round of the men's ice hockey tournament.
Belarus will join group D and face Sweden, Canada and the United States while Kazakstan will enter group C and play the Czech Republic, Finland and Russia.
Germany's coach George Kingston voiced his disapproval of the situation.
''For my players, the Olympic dream was an Olympic nightmare. In the agreement reached between the NHL, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Olympic Committee, no consideration was given to the teams in the qualifying round,'' Kingston said. (Kyodo News)
Italy beats Austria for 1st win in ice hockey
Italy picked up its first win of the qualifying round of the men's Olympic ice hockey tournament Tuesday with a 5-2 victory over Austria at the Big Hat ice arena that was more about pride than placing.
The Italians built up a 4-0 lead with two goals each in the first and second periods and added another in the third for the win over the uninspired Austrian squad.
Italy went up 2-0 on a pair of goals by Stefan Figliuzzi, banking a shot in off the skate of an Austrian defender at five minutes and 18 seconds into the first period and a high slapper into the corner later in the period.
Italy went up 3-0 on a power play in the second period when Guisseppe Busillo redirected a Michael De Angelis pass with his skate onto the stick of Brian Chittaroni who lifted a backhander over the shoulder of Austrian goalkeeper Claus Dalpiaz.
Following Italy's third goal Austrian coach Ron Kennedy replaced Dalpiaz with Reinhard Divis.
Italy's fourth goal came on a deflection off Roland Ramoser's leg following a shot from the point.
Austria got on the scoreboard at three minutes and 41 seconds into the third period when Gerald Ressmann took a pass from behind the net and beat Italian goaltender Mike Anthony Rosati low on the glove side.
Austria's Wolfgang Kromp closed the gap to 5-2 later in the third when he picked up a rebound in front of the net and from his knees lifted a backhander over the sprawling Italian goalie.
With the win Italy improved its record in the eight-nation qualifying round to one win against two losses while Austria fell to no wins, two ties and one loss.
As a result of Tuesday's loss, Austria will face Japan on Thursday in a game to determine 13th and 14th place. (Kyodo News)
Late goal lifts Kazakstan over Slovakia in ice hockey
Alexandr Koreshkov shot past Igor Murin on a late breakaway to lift Kazakstan to a 4-3 victory over Slovakia on Tuesday and into the final round of the men's ice hockey tournament at the Nagano Olympic Winter Games.
The victory at the Aqua Wing ice arena placed the Kazaks on top of their preliminary-round group with two wins and a tie and into the ''dream tournament'' with the sport's six major powers -- Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States.
The ''dream tournament,'' getting under way Friday, features teams with top professionals from the North American National Hockey League (NHL) playing for their home countries for the first time in Olympic history.
''It is beyond our expectations to be among the top eight. Now we will go on to face our next adversary,'' Kazakstan head coach Boris Alexandrov said.
Kazakstan scored three goals in the third period to secure the win, taking a 3-2 lead when Konstantin Shafranov took a pass from Evgeniy Koreshkov and tucked it away for the go-ahead goal.
Peter Bondra of the NHL Washington Capitals skipped the puck past Kazak goalie Vitaliy Yeremeyev to equalize for Slovakia.
Bondra was one of eight NHL players available to Slovakia after Sunday, but head coach Jan Sterbak opted to use only two of the players in this final game of the preliminary round.
The other players, who traveled to Nagano, were not eligible to play until Friday.
''Of course, it was possible to keep more than two places (open on the roster), but we had to make a compact team for matches with Austria and Italy. So, we decided to keep only two places for NHL players,'' Sterbak said. (Kyodo News)
Results and final standings of the ice hockey men's round-robin preliminaries Tuesday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Nagano (Tabulate under games played, won, lost, tied, goals for, goals against, points. The top team in each group advances to the next round-robin):
Group A
Team GP W L T GF GA P
Kazakstan 3 2 0 1 14 11 5
Slovakia 3 1 1 1 9 9 3
Italy 3 1 2 0 11 11 2
Austria 3 0 1 2 9 12 2
Results Tuesday
Kazakstan 4, Slovakia 3
Italy 5, Austria 2
-----
Group B
Team GP W L T GF GA P
Belarus 3 2 0 1 14 4 5
Germany 3 2 1 0 7 9 4
France 3 1 2 0 5 8 2
Japan 3 0 2 1 5 10 1
Results Tuesday
Belarus 2, Japan 2, tie
Germany 2, France 0
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Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun