Women’s Hockey Update: April 30th, 2018

Women’s Hockey League Cup champions Agidel Ufa meet with Republic of Bashkortostan Head Rustem Khamitov (centre).  (Image Source)

The dust has settled after last week’s conclusion to the Women’s Hockey League season, but there are still some things to talk about in this update!  Read on, for some official recognition for champions Agidel, for an overdue international hockey update, and other notes.

Newly-crowned Women’s Hockey League champions Agidel Ufa returned home this past week after securing their first-ever title last Monday.  One of the first orders of business was a celebratory gathering with Rustem Khamitov, Head of the Republic of Bashkortostan, of which Ufa is the capital city.  Khamitov delivered a brief address, expressing his “pride and joy” for the team, and saying that “you have truly become part of the history of women’s hockey, for a long time, forever.”  He also passed on a congratulatory message from Russian Hockey Federation President Vladislav Tretyak, and noted that Agidel’s title strengthens Ufa’s expressed hopes of hosting the IIHF Women’s World Championship in the near future.

Agidel GM Alexander Semak displays the team’s new logo. (Image Source)

There was an interesting revelation at the gathering as well: in 2018-19, it appears that Agidel will have a new logo showing the team’s name in the Cyrillic cursive alphabet.  Agidel General Manager (and former New Jersey Devil) Alexander Semak presented Khamitov with a team sweater bearing the new insignia (hat-tip to Denis Osipchuk for this note).

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The logo will not be the only change for Agidel in 2018-19, as the champions have already announced that one of the key players in this year’s team will not return.  Hungarian forward Fanni Gasparics scored 7-16-23 in 24 games for Agidel in the 2017-18 regular season and made the All-Star game for the second straight year.  She missed the first round of the playoffs to play for her country at the Div. 1A Womens’ Worlds, where she was named Best Forward of the Tournament, but returned for Agidel’s final series against Tornado Moscow Oblast and recorded one assist in three games.  We do not yet know where Gasparics will be playing next season, but she will certainly be missed in Ufa, where she has worn Agidel’s colours since 2015.

 

Фанни Гашпарич объявила о том, что покидает Уфу после трёх лет выступления за #hcagidel.
Она сыграла 87 матчей в ЖХЛ и набрала 95 (48+47) очков при ПП «+88».
Фанни участвовала в обоих Матчах звёзд @whl_ru.

Спасибо, Фанни, за то время, что провела в Уфе

До свидания, чемпионка! pic.twitter.com/XARix7bfFB

— Agidel Ufa ЧЕМПИОНЫ! (@HCAgidel) April 28, 2018

 

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One of the events that got neglected here in all of the trophy-awarding that went on last week was the resolution of the Women’s Under-16 European Cup tournament, which was held in Finland from April 16th to 19th.  As discussed here, Team Russia, the defending gold medalists, had opened their title defence in 2018 well, with resounding victories over Switzerland and Norway.

Under the tournament format, group-stage games were only 20 minutes long, with teams playing two per day, and on the second day Russia faced tougher competition.  First up were the Finnish “U18 Challengers”, a team composed mostly of 17-year-olds.  Russia dominated the game, outshooting their opponents 45-12, but ran into a hot goalie in Erica Jaskari.  Jaskari allowed only Varvara Boriskova’s first-half goal, and the Challengers tied the game with 15 seconds left thanks to Wilma-Binella Pölkki.  But in the shootout that followed, Polina Luchnikova scored Russia’s winner to move their record to 3-0.

The last group-stage game was against Germany, with goalie Anna Alpatova returning to the Russian net for her second game of the day.  Once again, Russia controlled the play (29-11 would be the final shot totals), and got goals inside the first ten minutes from Kristina Glukharyova and Kristi Shashkina for a 2-0 lead.  From there, the game eased to its finish, with Alpatova seldom troubled in net, and 2-0 would stand up as the final score.  Team Russia thus finished the group stage with a 4-0 record (one win via shootout) and top spot in Group A.

Semifinal action at the 2018 U16 Women’s Euros. (Image Source)

But hopes of a second gold medal were dashed in the semifinal against hosts Finland (the Finnish U16 national team, not the U18 Challengers, just to clarify).  Tournament games reverted to the full 60-minute format for the medal round, and early in the first period Shashkina put Russia up 1-0.  But before the end of the opening frame, Kiia Simola had equalized for Finland, and hosts took the lead in the second period through Lisette Täks.  Then it was Shashkina’s turn again; she leveled the score at 2-2 early in the third period.  But late in the final frame, Satu Teräväinen put Finland back in front, and this time there would be no coming back; Sofia Nuutinen added some insurance for the hosts, and the final score was 4-2.  The Finns, who had outshot Team Russia 38-27 in the game, would go on to claim the gold medal with a 6-3 victory over Czechia.

Team Russia did come away with the consolation of a bronze medal, thanks to a 12-0 rout of Switzerland in the third-place game.  Ilona Markova posted the big numbers in that one with a hat-trick, while Glukharyova and Yelizaveta Shkaleva contributed two goals apiece and Alpatova picked up the 11-save shutout.

And while bronze was not the hoped-for medal colour, some Russian players stood out at the 2018 Euros.  Shashkina led all scorers at 6 gp, 8-5-13, just ahead of Markova who was alone in second (6 gp, 5-6-11).  Shkaleva also cracked the double-digit barrier in points, with ten.  This was the second year of the U16 Euros, and I have not yet heard any details about plans for the third.  It’s a very interesting tournament, full of names to file away for future reference, and I do hope that we see it again in 2019.

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There is still one more flurry of on-ice action to come in the 2017-18 Russian women’s hockey season; late next week, six teams from the amateur League of Women’s Hockey‘s 18+ division (the Amazons Division) will meet in Sochi to compete for the national amateur women’s title.  This is the third year of the competition, with Grad-1 Moscow having emerged on top in both of the first two.  They are back looking for a third crown, and the complete field for the tournament is as follows:

• Grad-1 Moscow
• Grizli-1 Novosibirsk
• Groza-1 St. Petersburg
• Pantery St. Petersburg
• Rost-Khimik Nizhny Novgorod
• Spartanki Moscow

Grad-1 Moscow celebrate the 2016-17 title. (Image Source)

Grad-1 will enter as heavy favourites once again, with a roster that includes a number of former Russian national-teamers.  Both the defending champions and Grizli-1 have appeared at all three national championship tournaments, while this will be the second visit for Groza-1.  Pantery, Rost-Khimik, and Spartanki are all among the final six for the first time.

The tournament will run from May 11th to 15th, in Sochi.  I will update here if and when I find about livestreams for it!

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Thank you for reading!