Women’s Hockey Update: November 6th, 2018

The national team huddles up during preparation for this upcoming weekend’s four-nations tournament in Switzerland.  (Image Source)

In the last update on Russian women’s hockey here, we took a look at how Agidel Ufa, Gorny Ukhta, and SK Sverdlovsk Oblast had come through the first halves of their respective 2018-19 Women’s Hockey League seasons.  This time, we will check in with the other four teams in the league, as Biryusa Krasnoyarsk, SKIF Nizhny Novgorod, Dynamo St. Petersburg, and Tornado Moscow Oblast.  And there is some international play upcoming (we have a Russian national team roster), and an update on the progress of the Russian U18 women’s national championship, so read on!

Valeriya Pavlova. (Image Source)

It is a bit of a surprise to find Biryusa Krasnoyarsk (12-6) in second place at the halfway mark of the season, there they are, on the Siberian side have done it on merit as well.  Although swept by Tornado in three games in Dmitrov, Biryusa do have a win over Agidel in Ufa, swept Dynamo and Gorny in Krasnoyarsk, and took two out of three of SKIF in Nizhny Novgorod.  They don’t score a bunch, this Biryusa team (52 goals, fourth in the league), but they are staunch on defence (38 goals against, second-fewest), and have a solid goalie in national team regular Nadezhda Morozova (.915 sv% and four shutouts in 17 games).  Their one real offensive weapon, another full-time national-teamer in Valeriya Pavlova, is having a fine season as well, seventh in points and fourth in the league in goals (17 gp, 15-6-21).  They’re doing fine, and pushing hard for a post-season spot after missing out in 2017-18.

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After some re-building seasons, SKIF Nizhny Novgorod (10-8) are flirting with contention this season, although dropping two of three at home to Biryusa to close out the first half was a warning that they are not there yet.  Rising young stars Oxana Bratishcheva (18 gp, 9-10-19) and Landish Falyakhova (18 gp, 8-11-19) are leading the way, but this team scores by committee; SKIF, whose 62 goals are the third-most in the league, have ten players over half a point per game, and Finnish veteran Karoliina Rantamäki has nine in 12 contests since returning to the roster.  SKIF’s very young goaltending corps is holding up well too, with Valeriya Tarakanova (14 gp, .919 sv%) getting most of the work.  Having alreayd beaten Agidel on the road (and Tornado at home), SKIF are well-set for a return to the playoffs, although it won’t be automatic for them.

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Valeriya Merkusheva. (Image Source)

Dynamo St. Petersburg (10-8) looked to be stumbling a bit in 2018-19, but they end the first half with a stunning feat: a three-game sweep of Tornado, and in Dmitrov to boot.  Those wins came largely on the strength of Dynamo’s talisman, goalie Valeriya Merkusheva, who stopped 103 of 107 shots over the three games to run her season sv% to .932 in 13 games.  Like Biryusa, Dynamo are a bit shy when it comes to offence, with no players over the point-per-game mark and just 50 goals overall.  Their top point- and goal-producer is actually a little bit of a surprise: Svetlana Prokopenko (18 gp, 12-5-17) has already matched her career high in points, in 36 games two seasons ago, and is just one off her single-season best in goals.  Those three big wins over Torpedo should provide the team a big boost heading to the second half.

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It’s a stunner, but perennial powerhouse Tornado Moscow Oblast (10-8) are outside the playoff picture at the halfway mark of the season.  What has gone wrong?  Well, getting swept at home by Dynamo did not help, and neither did a road sweep at Agidel to start the season.  Tornado have also dropped games to SKIF and Gorny, and that is most unlike them.  Part of the problem may be depth; Tornado’s big forward line of league scoring leader Anna Shokhina (18 gp, 17-26-43), Yelena Dergachyova (18 gp, 11-18-29), and Alevtina Shtaryova (18 gp, 16-11-27) are still shooting the lights out, but things drop off drastically after that.  However, don’t be fooled — this is still a good team, with the second-most goals scored in the league (77) and the third-fewest given up (42, although it’s very close both ways).  They may be fifth at the halfway mark, but it will be a real surprise if they are still there at the end.

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And so the Women’s Hockey League table looks like this at the moment:

(Image Source)

And as you can see, there’s a real quadrille in progress over the fate of the last three playoff spots, with Biryusa, SKIF, Dynamo, and Tornado all within two points of each other.  And SK Gorny are not so far back that they cannot get back into it, although that possibility is a bit complicated by their imminent move from their traditional home in Ukhta to St. Petersburg.

The scoring race at the moment is not quite as tight, with Anna Shokhina 11 points ahead second place.  However, given that the current runner-up is Agidel’s formidable Olga Sosina, the trophy may yet be up for grabs.  Shokhina’s line-mate Yelena Dergachyova is in third place, three points back of  Sosina.  As for the goals race, that too is Shokhina’s at the moment; her 17 markers have her one ahead of Sosina and Alevtina Shtaryova.

The Women’s Hockey League gets back to work on November 14th, as Biryusa host lowly SKSO for three games, SK Gorny welcome SKIF, and Tornado are at home to arch-rivals Agidel.

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In the meantime, the Russian women’s national team will be in action, taking part in a four-nations tournament in Switzerland from November 9th to 11th.  Czechia, Germany, and the Swiss will comprise the rest of the field.  The nats have been in camp preparing for the tournament, with the following roster:

Goalies:

• Valeriya Merkusheva (Dynamo St. Petersburg)
• Nadezhda Morozova (Biryusa Krasnoyarsk)
• Anna Prugova (Agidel Ufa)

Defenders:

• Mariya Batalova (Agidel Ufa)
• Anastasiya Chistyakova (Dynamo St. Petersburg)
• Liana Ganeyeva (Gorny Ukhta)
• Yekaterina Lobova (Biryusa Krasnoyarsk)
• Anastasiya Medvedeva (SKIF Nizhny Novgorod)
• Yekaterina Nikolayeva (Dynamo St. Petersburg)
• Nina Pirogova (Tornado Moscow Oblast)
• Anna Shibanova (Agidel Ufa)

Forwards:

• Oxana Bratishcheva (SKIF Nizhny Novgorod)
• Yelena Dergachyova (Tornado Moscow Oblast)
• Inna Dyubanok (Agidel Ufa)
• Landish Falyakhova (SKIF Nizhny Novgorod)
• Fanuza Kadirova (Gorny Ukhta)
• Viktoriya Kulishova (SKIF Nizhny Novgorod)
• Lidiya Malyavko (Biryusa Krasnoyarsk)
• Valeriya Pavlova (Biryusa Krasnoyarsk)
• Anna Shokhina (Tornado Moscow Oblast)
• Alevtina Shtaryova (Tornado Moscow Oblast)
• Yekaterina Smolina (Dynamo St. Petersburg)
• Olga Sosina (Agidel Ufa)
• Alyona Starovoitova (Tornado Moscow Oblast)
• Anna Timofeyeva (Biryusa Krasnoyarsk)
• Alexandra Vafina (SKIF Nizhny Novgorod)

With the US-based NWHL also on break for international play, Connecticut Whale goalie Mariya Sorokina has also been in camp, although it does not look like she is part of the official roster for the tournament in Switzerland.

This is a solid-enough roster, and may well bear a striking resemblance to the final lineup for the Worlds next spring.  There have been particularly noteworthy changes in the goaltending, where coach Chistyakov had previously preferred Tornado’s Nadezhda Alexandrova and SKIF’s Valeriya Tarakanova to Prugova and Merkusheva.  Will it work?  We will see.  For this tournament, Russia will take on Czechia on Friday, Germany on Saturday, and host Switzerland on Sunday.

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Finally, this past week saw the second round of Russia’s national Under-18 women’s championship, in Kurganovo near Yekaterinburg.  Once again, representative teams from eight regions of Russia took part, although Novosibirsk Oblast, which had sent a team to the first round tournament a month ago, did not take part in this one; they were replaced by the representative team from Moscow.  And the Kazan selects broadened their reach to represent the whole Republic of Tatarstan.  The tournament is under a new format this season, with the eight teams divided into two groups, and the round-robin play followed by semi-finals and a final.  Group A in Kurganovo comprised St. Petersburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Moscow Oblast, and Chelyabinsk, while in Group B were Moscow Oblast, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Tatarstan, and Vologda Oblast.

St. Petersburg had won Round 1 of the tournament in September, defeating Moscow Oblast in the final.  This time, those two met at the semi-final stage, and the Moscow Oblast side got their revenge with a 4-2 victory.  The other semifinal saw home team Sverdlovsk Oblast defeat Chelyabinsk Oblast 5-1.  In the final, it was the team from the capital region coming out on top by a 2-0 score.  The win enabled Moscow Oblast to take over top spot in the overall tournament standings, although there is more action yet to come.

In the other placement games, St. Petersburg downed Chelyabinsk Oblast 5-2 for third place, Moscow defeated Chelyabinsk 6-1 for fifth place, and Tatarstan overcame Vologda Oblast by a 7-5 score for seventh place.

Players from the Moscow Oblast team celebrate their tournament triumph.  (Image Source)

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Next week, we’ll have a complete recap of that international tournament in Switzerland, and whatever other news might crop up in the meantime.  Thank you for reading!