The final minutes of one of the biggest upsets in international hockey history. Belarus upset the heavily favored Swedes 4-3 in the quarterfinals of the medal round on Feb. 20, 2002.
Belarus advanced out of the prelims (along with Germany) with wins over Ukraine and France. The Germans and Belarussians both got crushed in the final round group play, losing all three of their games. The Germans scored five goals and gave up 18 while the Belarussians scored six and gave up 22 in losses to Russia (6-4), Finland (8-1) and USA (8-1). No one gave them a chance at all in the medal round vs. top-seed Sweden, who had won all its games to that point and was a team packed with NHLers.
Belarus kept the game close despite being heavily outshot. In the waning minutes, Vladimir Kopat shots a puck on net from center ice that bounces off Tommy Salo's shoulder and trickles into the net for what would be the game winner. Belarussian goalie Andrei Mezin holds off a late Sweden attack to seal the gigantic upset.
The Belarussians already had airplane tickets booked for that evening but had to re-book as they guaranteed themselves two more games. They would promptly get trounced by Team Canada 7-1 in the semifinals two days later before falling to the Russians in the Bronze medal game 7-2 the next day.
Gary Thorne and John Davidson made the call for the American broadcast.
12 мар 2009
