Belarus became the first nation to name it's provisional hockey roster for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Wednesday.
Head coach Mikhail Zakharov named a 23- man roster similar to the Belarus teams that competled at the 2008 and 2009 world championships.
Four NHL players made the roster, including Colorado defenceman Ruslan Salei, 36, Toronto forward Mikhail Grabovsky, 25, and Montreal's Kostitsyn brothers, Andrei, 24, and Sergei, 22.
Andrei Mezin will play between the pipes for Belarus. The 35- year- old netminder helped the Belarusians reach the quarterfinals at the 2009 worlds with a .9478 save percentage that earned him the Best Goalkeeper award at the tournament.
Mezin was also involved in Belarus upset Of Sweden at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City with 44 saves.
In total 14 players from the KHL, seven from Dynamo Minsk, the Belarusian club in the Russian league, and five from the Belarusian Extraliga made the provisional roster.
Vancouver will be the third Olympics for Belarus after competing in 19987 and 2002. Belarus did not qualify for the 2006 Games.
The final Olympic rosters must be registered by February 15, one day prior to the beginning of the tournament. All other provisional rosters are scheduled to be announced by January 1.
Goaltenders
Vitali Koval
Maxim Malyutin
Andrei Mezin
Defence
Andrei Antonov
Andrei Bashko
Vladimir Denisov
Viktor Kosiuchenok
Rustan Salei
Nikolai Stansenko
Vadim Sushko
Alexander Syrei
Oleg Antonenko
Sergei Demagim
Forwards
Mikhail Grabovsky
Alexei Kaliuzhny
Konstantin Koltsov
Andrei Kostitsyn
Sergei Kostitsyn
Alexander Kulakov
Andrei Stas
Alexei Ugarov
Sergei Zadelenov
No comments:
Post a Comment