Upset may have been in the air, but it was only the stuff that the Belarussians were breathing yesterday morning at their breakfast table. These Games represent only the former Soviet Republic hockey team’s second appearance, and the swampy country of 10 million has won exactly one Salt Lake medal, a bronze in freestyle aerials. Moreover, the country’s Olympic team spent last week fending off doping charges that were later dropped. All that didn’t stop the Belarussian hockey players from talking about Team USA’s 1980 triumph over the USSR at breakfast. “I was only six years old,” said defenseman Ruslan Salei, “but we all remembered it and said that we could be the next miracle.”
A miracle, really? Well, consider that only three days ago Belarus was out-hit, out-hustled, out-passed and out-shot (13-48) by Team USA in an 8-1 drubbing. Once again, against Sweden, Belarus was miserably out-shot, 19-47. Yet Andrei Mezin, a runt of goalie who couldn’t even make it in the NHL’s bush-leagues, was a man possessed. The 28-year-old hopped and skipped around the crease, leaping with abandon on stray pucks and taking the sort of risks that only underdogs can take. “I didn’t expect to beat them,” Mezin said, “but you always try to win. Sometimes even a gun without the bullet shoots and that was us today.”
The magic bullet came out of the gun of Vladimir Kopat, one of the smallest guys on the ice. With two-and-a-half minutes remaining, the 30-year-old defenseman was miles away from Swedish goalie Tommy Salo when Kopat wound up and unloaded a wild rocket. The puck hurtled 70 feet toward the head of Salo, until that moment the Olympics’ hottest netminder. Instead of letting it sail harmlessly over the net, Salo stabbed at the puck with his glove hand and deflected it high above his head only to have it come down and bounce off the back of his mask and into the net. Afterward, Kopat was as bemused and surprised as everyone else. “If I said I wanted to make this goal,” he said, “nobody would have believed me. I just shot behind the red line and that’s what happened.” No, he laughed, he wasn’t aiming at Salo’s head.
Game won, the Belarussians mobbed goalie Mezin and jumped up and down in a mosh pit on ice. The party carried into the bowels of the E Center, where the players imagined the parties in Minsk, the capital. “They’re out there in the streets drinking this big,” said forward Vladimir Tsyplakov, measuring an imaginary glass of beer with his hand, unable to contain his laughter. “This is bigger than 1980,” he said. “It’s bigger for our country because the economy is not so good and we have not won many times.” For Sweden, the nightmare was physical as much as it was surreal. “It’s a painful feeling in the pit of my stomach,” said defenseman Kenny Jonsson. “It hasn’t sunk in that we are out,” Sundin said.
Sweden’s sudden depression was matched only by Team USA’s instant alarm. They had been watching the game in the Olympic Village just before boarding their buses to the E Center. “We were stunned by the whole thing,” said forward Tony Amonte. “I guess you could call it a wake-up call.” At the same time, the upset allowed them to breathe a little easier. It virtually assures Team USA of their first medal since 1980. Now, the worst they can expect is to play the loser of the Belarus-Canada game in Saturday’s bronze-medal match–if the Americans lose tomorrow against Russia. Then again, the way things are going, the U.S. could just as easily meet Belarus in a gold-medal match of miracles.
