Alter Bekannter - Ville Peltonen

Dynamo Minsk comes back from break with restored strength for international hockey season
 
Dynamo Minsk, the Mannheim Eagles and Karlovy Vary all kick off the new international hockey season with a victory.
 
It is particularly the HC Dynamo Minsk who kicked off the new international season with a bang after the break. This was thanks partly to the highly motivated goal scorer Ville Peltonen who had already scored five points (two goals and three assists) to the final 7:0 victory at the Karjala Cup in the game of Finland vs. archrival Sweden, and also due to the performance of a very promising new signing: international player Oleg Antonenko from Belarus who has joined the team from league rival Awtomobilist Jekaterinburg. The 38 year old Antonenko has already represented the Belarus National Team at over 143 international matches and participated in 11 world championships. The successful Minsk start to the season was therefore no surprise: in an away game Lada Togliatti was defeated 4:3. However, at the following match in Kazan, also an away game, there was less cause for celebration when the Belarus team went down 1:4 against the Ak Bars team. This still puts them only one point away from a spot in the play-offs.

Karlovy Vary: Victory under a new trainer

Karlovy Vary, too, requires only two more points to enter the top ten which will secure the team a place at the Czech play-offs. During the first game under the guidance of new coach Hynek, the team handily beat the HC Budweis 5:2. This did not prevent the team from losing at the Pilsen Westderby 1:4 in front of 8,200 spectators. Karlovy Vary's coach Hynek has called on his players to fight for a better conversion of shots into goals for the coming matches.  The Mannheim Eagles are another top ranking candidate who was victorious with 4:2 against the Krefeld Penguins at the team's only game since the beginning of the season. Getting off to a bad start, unfortunately, was Spengler Cup host HC Davos: they lost both of last weekend's matches against Bern (3:5) and Servette Geneva (3:4), respectively, but on Tuesday the team's fortunes picked up again with a 3:2 victory against EV Zug.