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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
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Japan suffers heartbreaking loss to France in men's hockey
14:00 BLR 8-2 GER
18:00 FRA 5-2 JPN
Japan suffers heartbreaking loss to France
The Japanese men's hockey team, looking for their first Olympic victory since 1976 in Innsbruck, suffered a heartbreaking 5-2 loss to France on Monday in their second game of the qualifying tournament at
the Nagano Olympic Winter Games.
Playing in front of a vocal crowd that included Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako, the Japanese team battled France even 2-2 over the first 55 minutes.
But, France's Christian Pouget scored a power-play goal at 17:05 of the third period when he took a centering pass in front of the net and lifted a high bankhander over Japanese goaltender Dusty Imoo to
put France up 3-2.
With Karl Dewolf in the penalty box for holding, Japan pulled Imoo at 18:28 of the third, but Philipe Bozon, formerly of the National Hockey League's St. Louis Blues, stole the puck at center ice and scored into an empty net with 52 seconds remaining.
Playing with a man advantage, some questioned the wisdom of pulling Imoo, but Japan's coach Bjorn Kinding defended his decision.
''We only scored two goals in 58 minutes and when you have six skaters against four you're chances are much better, unfortunately things didn't work out,'' said Kinding.
Japan elected to stick with the extra attacker and France added another empty netter at 19:37 to close out the scoring.
In its first two games of the qualifying round, Japan has been plagued by an inability to score goals, especially on the power play.
Including Saturday's game against Germany, Japan is now 1-for-9 in power-play situations.
The loss dashed Japan's hopes of advancing beyond the qualifying round as Belarus won in an earlier game against Germany and now has a perfect record with two wins without a loss.
''This was a tough loss for us, we've been working for a year to be competitive and beat France and we thought we could do it as long as we shut down their power play which we did until the last three minutes,'' said Kinding.
General manager Dave King elected to go with Imoo in goal even though Shinichi Iwasaki played well in the opening game against Germany.
Imoo, however, kept Japan in the game with several huge saves even as the French dominated the second period, limiting Japan to only four shots.
Japan took a 2-1 lead at the 15:32 mark of the first period when Ryan Kuwabara, standing all alone in front of the net, took a feed from Akihito Sugisawa and fired it home for a power-play goal.
Bozon, scored a short-handed goal when he stripped the puck from Takayuki Kobori at the blue line and took it all the way down, beating Imoo after Japan had taken a 1-0 lead.
Ryan Fujita opened the scoring for Japan at 7:36 of the first period when he converted a pass from Toshiyuki Sakai standing at the side of the net and slid the puck under the legs of French goaltender
Francois Gravel from the slot.
Both teams, with losses in their first games, were desperate for a victory to have any chance of advancing beyond the qualifying round.
The game against France also represented Japan's best chance to steal a victory in the eight-nation qualifying round. (Kyodo News)
Belarus topples Germany in Olympic ice hockey
Belarus relied on an explosive attack and solid defense, cruising to 8-2 victory Monday over Germany in the qualifying round of the men's ice hockey tournament of the Nagano Olympic Winter Games.
Eight different players scored for Belarus and goalies Andrei Mezin and Aleksandr Shumibub combined for the win at the Big Hat ice arena as the Belarussians snared their second win in the qualifying round without a loss.
The win put Belarus in control of group B with one game remaining with Japan on Tuesday.
For Germany, head coach George Kingston elected to make a change in the nets, going with Klaus Merk over Joseph Heiss. It turned out to be a costly decision.
While he did not get much support from his defense, Merk allowed some soft goals including several from long range.
With Oleg Khmyl off on a double minor for high sticking, Germany got on the scoreboard early in the second period when Dieter Hagen picked up a rebound in the slot and slid it between Mezin's legs to make it 2-1.
But that was as close as Germany would get. Taking advantage of some careless penalties, Belarus came right back scoring two goals within one minute to go up by 4-1.
Then with under one minute remaining in the second period, Andrei Skabelka got behind the German defenders at center ice and took a perfect pass from deep in his own zone and scored on a breakaway putting the game out of reach.
Belarus went up 2-0 in the first period on goals by Oleg Antonenko and Ruslan Salei.
Salei, a defenseman for the North American National Hockey League's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, became available for the Belarus team following a two-game suspension he received for head butting in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 1. (Kyodo News)
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Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun