ICE HOCKEY

Mighty Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei’s trip from California to Japan should have ended midday Friday, when he planned to land in Tokyo and take a brief train ride to Nagano, where he would join his Belarus teammates for their Olympic debut against France on Saturday in Group B preliminary-round play.

It sounded fine in theory. In practice, it was far from perfect.

“I took the train and there were a lot of people, so I stood for an hour between the cars,” he said. “I feel kind of tired.”

His fatigue was hardly evident in Belarus’ 4-0 victory over France.

Boosted by the addition of Salei, who was appointed an assistant captain, Belarus outshot France, 30-18, in its first Olympic contest as an independent nation.

“I just tried to play basic,” said Salei, who was released by the Ducks before the Olympic break because his two-game suspension imposed by the NHL for head-butting Chicago’s Sergei Krivokrasov last Sunday left him ineligible for the Ducks’ last two games. “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes.”

Belarus began competing independently only in 1993 and has already worked its way up two levels to the A Pool of hockey countries. Many members of its Olympic team have played in the Canadian junior leagues and the minor leagues of North America; winning goaltender Andrei Mezin last played for Flint (Mich.) of the United Hockey League.

Left wing Vladimir Tsyplakov of the Kings is scheduled to join Belarus when the NHL begins its Olympic break. Belarus plays Germany on Monday..

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Italian assistant coach Bob Murdoch was impressed with Kazakhstan’s performance and predicted it--and other former Soviet republics--will be heard from again.

“Most of their players are in the Russian Elite League. The Slovaks, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Latvia--they’re all hockey countries,” he said. “It’s going to be tough for a lot of Central European teams over the next few years.”