Ilya Bryzgalov Calls out His Teammates

Ilya Bryzgalov wasn’t the least bit hesitant to call out his teammates after the Russians were defeated 2-1 against Slovakia in a lengthy and intense shootout on Thursday. Russia who along with Canada are the co- favourites to win the gold at this year’s Olympics lost the game when veteran Slovak forward Pavol Demitra scored the winner in the seventh round. “He faked and put it in,” Bryzgalov who lost a 5-3 decision against the Slovaks to open the 2006 Turin Olympics said. Even though the Russians had 37 shots and was victimized by a hot goalie in Jaroslav Halak they still were mildly criticized by Bryzgalov after the game. “To be honest we are not playing our best hockey,” Bryzgalov said. “We turned the puck over too many times. We had good chances on the power play but we didn’t create anything.” No one would have predicted this upset as Slovakia was playing on consecutive nights. The well rested Russians took a 1-0 second period lead on a goal from Alexei Morozov. From that point on Halak took over in the Slovakia net. Russia who are still on top of Group B ran into some major third period penalty trouble when they were forced to kill off a five on three. Even though they successfully killed it off Slovakia did manage to send the game into overtime as Marian Hossa scored late in the game. In overtime hulking Slovak defeceman Zdeno Chara had the best opportunity as he came within inches of jamming a loose puck past Bryzgalov. Slovakia’s next game is on Saturday against Latvia while Russia next plays on Sunday against the Czech Republic. “We are playing like a team but we make lots of mistakes,” Bryzgalov said. “When we eliminate the mistakes we will be fine.”

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