Czechs beat Belarus at ice hockey world championships in Moscow

The Czech Republic opened its account at the Ice Hockey World Championships with an 8-2 pounding of Belarus on Friday. "In North America they would call that game an old fashioned butt-kicking," said Belarus coach Curt Fraser. "It wasn't pretty." The Czechs were world champions in four of the last eight years but Czech coach Alois Hadamczik was not making any predictions. "Today is only the first day so it is too early to talk about favourites," he told reporters. "Next is Austria and we are the favourites so we must play like favourites."