Belarus had never beaten the USA in international hockey competition before Thursday.
The no name Belarus squad feature former Montreal Canadiens forwards Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn. The brothers compiled four points, while Alexander Kitarov scored the GWG as Belarus tattooed, Team USA 5-2 @ the IIHF Worlds.
So much for Team USA handing a stacked Russia squad a 4-2 loss in their last outing.
Future Buffalo Sabres star and Boston University scoring legend Jack Eichel set up Torey Krug and Brock Nelson for the only two USA goals of the game. Eichel was sensational for the Americans. Eichel skated 23 shifts for a combined 16:44 TOI. Watching the 18 year old dominate late twenty and early thirty somethings with his sick skills, excellent skating, man's strength tells me that he is ready to star in the NHL next season. His shovel and dish work on the Nelson goal reminded me of John Tavares and Mike Modano. Seriously, he used his wheels and long reach to strip the puck then instinctively dish it to Nelson for the goal. You can't teach reach. Nor, can you teach fire, desire, and passion.
Eichel is a beast. He will be a star in Buffalo for the next decade. All Tim Murray has to do now is put a proverbial ring on Eichel's finger. In due time. Right now, he's busy proving thst he can dominate games played by NHLers and other international professional players.
Eichel now has three assists in his last two games.
Not so ready for prime time was USA goalie Jack Campbell (Dallas Stars), who was pedestrian in the loss by allowing five goals after he starred against Malkin, Tarasenko, Kovalchuck and the rascally Russians.
At the lonely end of the rink, Kingston, Ontario native Kevin Lalande, stopped 28 of 30 shots for the Belarus win. Lalande was once a Calgary Flames prospect.
After the loss, Eichel told IIHF that his squad allowed Belarus to hold the puck for too long. That, and dumb mistakes in their zone.
"We just let them have too much possession," said Eichel.
"We had a couple of mishaps in the offensive zone that led to them getting odd-man breaks and they took advantage of that."
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