And that evokes memories of one of Denisov’s proudest moments in a Belarus jersey, back in his first World Championship campaign in 2006 in Riga. The rookie defenceman was part of the team that won 2-1 against the Swiss, booking a quarter-final spot in the process.

That was a first for the team, and the sixth-placed finish remains its best-ever result.

Now, though, home advantage and a passionate crowd is starting to nurture dreams of a repeat after recent relegation battles. Some surprise results have thrown Group B wide open, and success against the Swiss would put Belarus six points ahead of the Alpine nation.

Denisov, though, is keeping his feet on the ground. Before the tournament he was reluctant to make predictions about Belarus’ prospects, and told local TV that his greatest fear was that the team would let its fans down on home ice.

But after beating Kazakhstan and banishing the memories of a heavy opening day defeat against the USA, the Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod blue-liner is more confident that this is a tournament where all teams can hope to pull off some big results.

“In today’s hockey a lot of teams are at the same kind of level and there are no weak opponents out there,” he said. “France showed that against Canada, then Italy went out and surprised France. Hockey’s an unpredictable game right now. Even when we played the Americans, although we gave up six goals at the start of the game it was pretty even and I don’t think we deserved to lose so badly.”

The other factor that is driving Belarus in this tournament is the passionate home crowd.

The hockey public in Minsk is well accustomed to getting behind Dynamo in the KHL and has readily transferred that affection to the national team. Denisov admitted that without the roars of a big crowd at their backs it would have been much harder for the team to recover from losing an early goal against Kazakhstan. Prior to the championship Denisov warned that the added pressure of playing at home might affect some of the players, but up to now familiar territory seems to be an inspiration rather than a concern.

Meanwhile as Belarus prepared to face Switzerland, head coach Hanlon during a press conference hit out at rumours that he was in line to replace Sean Simpson behind the Swiss bench after the tournament.

“It’s funny how this story came out just before our match against Switzerland,” he said. “Are there any quotes from me in that article? Did anybody ask me? No. I think it’s unfair, dishonest and wrong. I’m here with Belarus and I want to win it with them.”