8th Christmas International Tournament of Hockey Amateurs for the Prize of the President of the Republic of Belarus started with sensation. Team of the President of the Republic of Belarus didn`t manage to outplay Austrians - 2:2.

Games in Group "A" on the first day of the tournament came out to be a first-class thrillers for a joy of spectators.

Finland and Sweden started first with their Scandinavian rivalry. There were no goals till the fifteen minute of the first period, but then teams made four of them in five minutes. Finland three times got the puck into the net of the Per Tobias Hammarstedt, Sweden scored on power play. 3:1 - after the first 20 minutes. More skillful Finns continued to play their aggressive and impressive hockey and soon were leading four goals. That looked more than enough to win...

But in the third period Swedes made use of two penalties of the opponents scoring in power play. And on 58th minute Per Markus Sjoberg skated from behind the net and squeezed the puck into the Finns goal - 5:4. Soon team Sweden took off their goalkeeper for an extra forward but that only helped Toni Makiaho to make a "hat-trick" and bring victory to team Finland - 6:4.

Best players of the game Finland - Sweden: Toni Makiaho and Per Markus Sjoberg.

Belarus and Austria tied their game - 2:2. For both teams result was quite important. Hosts were eager to win in order to forget their loss in the last year final. Austrians also wanted to show something better than their last place in group in 7th Tournament. Belarus scored first and early in the second period doubled its advantage - Andrei Astashevich and Oleg Antonenko were the goals scorers respectively. But that was the end. Austrians surprisingly scored short-handed and in three minutes nice assist of Austrian "guest star" Bengt-Ake Gustafsson helped to finish Tomas Cijan the power-play efforts. 

No goals were fixed in the last third of the game, mainly thanks to Austrian keeper Christian Cseh, who made enormous amount of saves.

Best players of the game Austria - Belarus: Bengt-Ake Gustafsson and Oleg Antonenko.

No surprises were on 4th of January in Minsk Ice Palace - venue of the Group "B".

Team Canada didn`t give any chance to team Slovenia - 9:1. Europeans came to Minsk for the first time and perhaps were not 100% ready to that level of hockey. Captain Canada Kerry Goulet got 5 points (2 goals +3 assists) and headed the best scorers list. His line mate Robert Cranston is second there with 4 assists. First Slovenian goal on the Christmas Tournaments was on account of Boris Oven.

Best players of the game Canada - Slovenia: Kerry Goulet and Boris Oven.

Most intriguing game of the day had been expected between Russia and Czech Republic. Russia came to defend their title, Czechs were in it Minsk for a while. But their return looked promising in the beginning. Jiri Krasny made the double and Russians found themselves two goals behind. Only in the second period defending champions were leading the score. In the end Belarus east neighbours marked a solid victory over Czech Republic - 8:2.

"Triple Gold Club" member Vladimir Malakhov was the best scorer of the game - two goals and one assist. Interesting, that Russian legend scored in power play and short-handed.

Best players of the game Russia - Czech Republic : Oleg Shargorodski and Martin Altrichter.

Today Sweden meets Austria, Belarus - Finland. In group "B" first on ice will come Czech Republic and Slovenia. After them Russia will face Canada.

Best scorers list.

Organizers of the 8th Christmas International Tournament of Hockey Amateurs for the Prize of the President of the Republic of Belarus:

- Republican State and Public Association "President`s Sports Club"
- Ministry of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus
- Belarus Ice Hockey Association
- Minsk City Executive Committee

The general partners of the tournament are:
- Belarusian Potash Company
- Priorbank

General information partner:
- National State TeleRadioCompany of the Republic of Belarus.

Press office of the
Republican State and Public
Association "President`s Sports Club"