Women’s Hockey Update: September 18, 2017

Dynamo St. Petersburg forward Yekaterina Smolina on the attack versus Tornado Moscow Oblast this past weekend.  (Image Source)

The 2017-18 Women’s Hockey league season got underway on Saturday, as champions Tornado Moscow Oblast hosted defending bronze-medalists Dynamo St. Petersburg in a pair of games in Dmitrov, and the results were… well, they were quite fascinating, actually. Read on, for a full recap of the weekend’s action, for some international hockey, and for looks at the 2017-18 possibilities of the four Women’s Hockey League teams that finished off the podium last season!

 

After an uneventful first period in Saturday’s season-opening game, Tornado took the lead early in the second, as Mariya Batalova scored unassisted from a bad angle against Russian national team goalie Mariya Sorokina.  But Dynamo fought back, and with four minutes left in the second they were even; a beautiful banked stretch-pass by Yekaterina Nikolayeva sprang Yevgeniya Dyupina, who danced through the Tornado defence and fired past Nadezhda Alexandrova.  Terms were not level for long, however, as just 20 seconds later Alevtina Shtaryova once again beat Sorokina from a narrow angle, and Tornado led 2-1 at the second break.

Dynamo coach Alexander Zybin switched goalies for the third period, inserting young prodigy Valeriya Merkusheva in place of Sorokina, who had had an uncharacteristically tough outing.  Dynamo pressed hard for the equalizer, and with six minutes left, after they had already had a goal disallowed, they were finally rewarded; Czech defender Aneta Tejralová sifted a long wrist shot passed a screened Alexandrova, knotting the score at two apiece.  The game looked headed to overtime… but with only a minute and half to play, Tornado’s Anna Shokhina, the 2016-17 league scoring champion, took a hand.  Stepping into a long slapshot, she seemed to catch Merkusheva off guard, and with that Tornado had the lead.  No more goals were forthcoming, and so first blood went to the defending champs by a 3-2 score.  Nonetheless, it had been an encouraging performance by Dynamo, a team with some title ambitions.  Here are the highlights:

And if Game 1 had contained some good signs for the St. Petersburg side, it was nothing compared to the statement they made when the two teams met again on Sunday.  Alexandrova started again for Tornado while Merkusheva got the nod for Dynamo, and it was the latter’s team that struck first, as Nikolayeva snapped a shot home from the faceoff circle 13 minutes in.  Then, midway through the second period, Dynamo grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck.  Diana Kanayeva backhanded the puck past Alexandrova from point-blank range to make it 2-0, and just 30 second later Svetlana Kolmykova went top glove side after good work to get herself a shooting opportunity.  3-0 after 40 minutes, and that was already a stunning result in Dmitrov.

Tornado narrowed the gap in the third, as defender Nina Pirogova scored after being first to a loose puck in front of Merkusheva’s net.  But on this day Dynamo were not to be denied; Kanayeva removed any doubts with three minutes to go, as she drove hard to the net and jammed a rebound past Alexandrova for her second goal of the game.  That made the score 4-1, and that was how it ended — honours even for the weekend, but Dynamo St. Petersburg will have come away by far the happier with that outcome.  Highlights of that second game are here:

And so the Women’s Hockey League 2017-18 season is off to a most interesting beginning indeed!  The next chapters will begin to be written on Wednesday, when Dynamo return to action up in the northern town of Ukhta, against Arktik-Universitet.  On Thursday, last year’s silver medalists swing into action as Agidel Ufa host Biryusa Krasnoyarsk, and SKIF Nizhny Novgorod will welcome lowly SK Sverdlovsk Oblast.  Tornado, for their part, will be back on the ice on September 26th, at home versus Arktik-Universitet.

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To more hockey action — the Russian Under-18 women’s national team was in Finland last week for a trio of games against the host country.  When last we checked in, the Finns had taken the first of that set, 3-2 in overtime, and they won the second in similarly dramatic fashion.  Two early Finnish goals chased Anna Alpatova from the Russian net; she was replaced by Milena Tretyak, and Team Russia came roaring back to lead 3-2 midway through the middle frame.  Nothing daunted, Finland duly tied it up heading into the third, only to see Russia once again take the lead.  With ten minutes left, Finland drew level at 4-4, and that was how first regulation and then overtime would end.  In the shootout, it was Finland’s Kiia Nousiainen, with two goals already in the game, who scored the decisive marker, giving the hosts their second straight victory, this time by a 5-4 margin.  Yelizaveta Shkalyova and Kristina Shashkina had a goal and an assist each for Russia, with Irina Tsatsina and Mariya Tyugankina the other scorers (Oxana Bratishcheva provided two assists to the cause).

In the third and final meeting, on Thursday, Team Russia finally got the result they had wanted.  With Tretyak back in net, they broke out to an early 2-0 lead, and didn’t flinch when Finland got to within one early in the second.  Three more Russian goals drove the score to 5-1 still in the middle frame, although the Finns did get back to within three before the second intermission.  In the third period, they got within two with 13 minutes left, but any possibility of a nervous finish was put to rest just a minute later, as Bratishcheva scored to make it 6-3.  And that was how it ended.  Shashkina was once again at the fore, with two goals and an assist, while Bratishcheva added another two helpers to her clinching goal.  Alena Zubkova, Ilmira Taipova, and Anastasiya Yakubiva also found the net for Team Russia, and Shkalyova played provider with two assists.

The verdict for the series?  Coach Yevgeny Bobariko and his staff can come away fairly satisfied, I think.  Finland is a tough, tough, opponent in women’s hockey at any age level, particularly on home ice, and for Russia to pick up a win plus two extra-time losses seems to me a decent result.

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Back to the Women’s Hockey League, and in last week’s post, we looked at the upcoming season for the league’s top three teams of 2016-17: Tornado Moscow Oblast, Agidel Ufa, and Dynamo St. Petersburg.  Time, then, to check in with the four teams that finished out of the medals last season, and we start in Siberia with Biryusa Krasnoyarsk.

Valeriya Pavlova during pre-season preparations.  (Image Source)

Biryusa Krasnoyarsk slipped off the podium to fourth place last season, but one of the big issues has been solved.  Forward Valeriya Pavlova, a national team regular who was third in the league in goals in 2015-16 with 26 and fifth in points with 43 (all that in 24 games, too), missed all of last season while on maternity leave, but she is back on skates now.  Her return, if she can find her early-career form again (there is no reason to believe that she cannot), provides an immediate and obvious boost to the Siberian club’s fortunes, not to mention to the national team’s outlook.

Furthermore, in Pavlova’s absence a number of players took major steps forward last season, none moreso than forward Lidiya Malyavko.  The 22-year-old tripled her career best in goals, and nearly did so in points as well (36 gp, 18-19-37), to lead Biryusa in both those categories.  She also made her World Championship debut for the Russian national team.  Another name to note was that of Yelena Mezentseva, who emerged from the youth program ranks to score 15 goals in her rookie professional season; she also picked up a Worlds bronze with the Under-18 Russian national team and a Euros gold with the Under-16 side (Mezentseva turned 16 in March).  And there were signs of a rising star on defence, too, as 18-year-old Yekaterina Lobova led the team with a line of 6-15-21 in 36 games.  Those players are not the only examples of burgeoning talent, either; suffice it to say that this team has a lot of promise.

One minor dark cloud; starting goalie Nadezhda Morozova underwent knee surgery this past summer, although she was back in action for training camp.  Morozova is an excellent goalie, a regular with the national team, and Biryusa fans will be hoping that she is fully recovered.  If she is, Biryusa have it in them not just to make the playoffs, but to pose a very stiff challenge for any team they encounter there.

Season opener: Sept. 23rd away vs. Agidel Ufa.

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SKIF Nizhny Novgorod, last year’s fifth-place team, ranked among the league’s powerhouses up until just a couple of seasons ago, but have subsided a bit since Olga Sosina departed for Agidel Ufa.  SKIF do, however, still possess a potent scoring weapon in Finland’s Karoliina Rantamäki, twice an Olympic bronze medalist (1998 and 2010).  Though she will see her 40th birthday before the end of 2017-18, Rantamäki served notice last season that she is far from done; she was seventh in the league in goals with 21, and put up 39 points in 36 games (she also scored five goals in two 2017-18 pre-season games for SKIF, against Finnish clubs Ilves and KJT).  At the other end of the age spectrum meanwhile, 18-year-old Polina Bolgareva scored 14-13-27 in 36 games in her first professional season, while Oxana Bratishcheva, a year younger than Bolgareva, led the team in plus-minus at +12.

SKIF do have to deal with the exit of one particularly important player in defender Mariya Pechnikova, whose 11 points in 34 games led all the team’s blueliners.  The coaches will be hoping that Hungary’s Franciska Kiss-Simon can repeat or better her line of 36 gp, 4-6-10.  They will also be looking forward to another season of development from Yelena Provorova, captain of Russia’s U16 team at this year’s European Championship.  Provorova scored three points last season, and led the team’s defenders at +4 — and she only celebrated her 15th(!) birthday partway through the season.  In goal, SKIF will once again rely upon Valeriya Tarakanova, whose .916 sv% last season was one of the best such marks in the league.

The SKIF club has had a dominant Under-18 team in recent years; they are now multiple-time defending champions of Russia in that age category, and the program has produced talents like Provorova, Tarakanova, et al. for the parent team as well.  Developmental strength may yet propel SKIF back to the heights of the league, but that hour has not yet arrived.  For now, while SKIF’s chances of making the playoffs this season are not huge, they are not zero either, and the Nizhny Novogorod team will be lurking if any of the big guns slip up.

Season opener: Sept. 23rd at home vs. SK Sverdlovsk Oblast.

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Diana Bulatova in her new colours.  (Image Source)

After finishing sixth in 2016-17, Arktik-Universitet Ukhta will have a new look on their top line, and the departure from that trio is a significant one: Alexandra Huszak has returned home to play for KMH Budapest.  Huszak was second on the team in goals and points last season (31 gp, 19-20-39), and led the way at +12 on a team that was outscored by 41 in 36 games.  However, the prodigious Fanuza Kadirova (36 gp, 20-27-47, +5), rumoured to be on her way elsewhere this summer, elected to stay in Ukhta, as did the third member of that top trio, Karina Verkhovtseva (36 gp, 13-13-26, +2).  And Huszak’s replacement is very promising indeed; Diana Bulatova was lured away from Dynamo St. Petersburg, where she scored 6-14-20 in 36 games despite not playing much on the top line.  The quicker the new Arktik-Universitet top trio gels together, the better, but they should do just fine.

On defence, it will once again be Liana Ganeyeva leading the way; Arktik-Universitet’s captain has been elbowing her way into national team consideration over the past season or so, and she scored 5-14-19 in 36 games and went +7 for the Ukhta side in 2016-17.  No other defender on the team had more than two points, but there is some help on the way in the shape of former Agidel Ufa (and Russian national team) defender Natalya Vorontsova.  Vorontsova managed to get herself 11 points in 32 games on a very deep Agidel defense unit last season, so she should be able to help.  Most of the goaltending for Arktik-Universitet will once again be done by Alyona Kropacheva.

Arktik-Universitet have a genuine star of Russian women’s hockey in Kadirova, and seem to have improved their depth situation at least to some degree.  The playoffs may be a bridge too far at least this season, but the northerners should be able to improve their record at least a little bit.

Season opener: Sept. 20th at home vs. Dynamo St. Petersburg.

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We all know the tale by now, I suspect: the last time SK Sverdlovsk Oblast picked up a point from a game was when they were playing as Spartak-Merkury Yekaterinburg back in the 2013-14 season, and that was more than 100 games ago.  Furthermore, SKSO’s lone shining light of 2016-17, young goalie Valeriya Merkusheva, left this off-season for Dynamo St. Petersburg.  So, is there any reason for optimism on the eastern slopes of the Urals?

Well, perhaps.  Merkusheva’s replacements in the SKSO goal will be Yuliya Leskina, the former Olympian who was signed from Agidel Ufa this summer (re-signed, actually — Leskina played for Spartak-Merkury back in the day).  A calming veteran presence between the posts should be of great help to SKSO’s younger players, of whom there are a large number.  In that group, one to watch for in particular is forward Anastasiya Yakubiva.  She just turned 16 in February, so we should not expect miracles from her just yet, but Yakubiva was an important player for the Russian U16 team at this spring’s European Championship, and her name has begun to spring up on scoresheets for the Under-18 team with some regularity (see above, for example).  Last season was her first as a pro, and she notched five assists in 29 games for SKSO; in the contexts of her age and of the team, that’s not bad at all.  In any case, remember that name.

SKSO scored only 31 goals last season, but at least the three players who accounted for 26 of those — Yuliya Vasykova (9), Sofiya Senchukova (9), and Regina Yumaguzhina (8) — are all back for this campaign, as is defender Yekaterina Prozorova, who scored the only three goals put up by any of the team’s blueliners in 2016-17.  And the youngsters are all a year older, which should help matters to some degree.  This team appears a ways away from competitiveness, but we can hope that 2017-18 is the season in which that awful losing streak is finally put to rest.

Season opener: Sept. 23rd away vs. SKIF Nizhny Novgorod.

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That’s it for this week!  Next Monday, we’ll get you caught up on the Women’s Hockey League action of the coming days, plus whatever else may crop up in the meantime.  Thank you for reading!