Skellefteå AIK forward Pierre-Édouard Bellemare is currently playing for France at the World Championship in Minsk, and his team has posted a couple of big wins early in the tournament.
By Pavel Kuba and David Jahoda
MINSK - Pierre-Édouard Bellemare is a centre and left winger who plays for Swedish club Skellefteå AIK. But right now, he is wearing the tricouleur of the French national team, who have had an interesting start to the World Championship in Belarus. France has two wins in their first three games, edging Canada in a shootout and coming from behind to beat Slovakia.
Your team was down 3-1 in the third period against Slovakia, then scored four goals in a row to win 5-3. How did you do that?
We showed our character again. We didn’t play well in the first period, didn’t score any goals and allowed one. In the second period, we weren’t worse than the Slovaks, but we were down two goals. But this score didn’t break us because we knew we'd played well in the last few minutes of the period. We came out with determination in the third period, we survived their two-man power play and after that, we really turned it up. We are really, really happy.
So you still believed in yourselves that you could win the game?
Sure. We started playing really well around the halfway point of the game and we were only down by two goals. Not even for one moment did I have any doubt that we could do it.
Before this game, you lost to Italy, unfortunately, with the winning goal coming with only one minute left. Was it hard to put a loss like that behind you?
Our team recovered from it very quickly. We knew that we didn’t play against Italy as well as we wanted. We figured out how to play against them too late and we made too many mistakes as well. We wanted to get that totally out of our minds before the next game, and I think we did it. It was simply unbelievable, in fact!
French coach Dave Henderson made some lineup changes. Suddenly you appeared next to Antoine Roussel and Stéphane Da Costa. What was it like to play with them?
I think we really understood each other on the ice and I hope we will continue that in the other games. Stéphane has really great hands and Antoine is a great player too. We suit each other well. It’s clear that it wasn’t perfect, but we still have at least four games left and I believe that we will improve our chemistry a little more.
You play for Swedish club Skellefteå AIK during the season. Skellefteå is one of many teams that will be in the newly-created Champions Hockey League. What do you think about this project?
I haven’t thought about it yet. I’m trying to fully concentrate on this tournament at the moment. But it will be something that I'll definitely be curious about.
Did you know that one of the French clubs will be there?
Yes, I’ve heard something like that in our dressing room. I think it’s Briançon, am I right?
Yes, you are.
Well, it could be interesting if we play against them. We’ve got two guys who play for Briançon that are on the national team with us now. But mainly, it could help French hockey in the future. The players from the French club will face some of the best teams in Europe.
Have you already talked about this competition with your teammates on the French national team?
We prefer to concentrate on the World Championship, although I have to say that I like this idea. Some of the best European teams will play against each other and I think it could help make everyone better. We'll see, in which parts of the game the teams from the other countries are better. We'll be able to find out how we compare against international competition. Certainly, it’s a useful thing.
What you can say about the popularity of hockey in France?
It’s hard, hockey has a strong rivals like football, rugby and tennis. These sports are simply the most popular. However, in Minsk, some of our fans are here, even if not as many as some other countries. But they really help us and push us to try to win every game. They truly deserve a big MERCI!