Women’s Five-Nations in Dmitrov Starts Next Week!

SK Sverdlovsk Oblast’s Nadezhda Volf (in white) battles Tornado’s Mariya Batalova (now with Agidel) during a 2018 game. Both are on the Russian national team roster for next week’s tournament in Dmitrov. (Image Source)

I wondered aloud, in our recent look at the SK Sverdlovsk Oblast of the Women’s Hockey League, how long it would be before young defender Nadezhda Volf, recently graduated from Russian U18 national program, got a look with the senior national team. Not long, as it turns out! Volf has been called to the senior squad for the Five-Nations tournament beginning next week in Dmitrov, just north of Moscow, and will look to make her senior international debut. Read on, for a quick look at the tournament itself, and at the rest of Team Russia’s roster!

The Five-Nations Tournament in Dmitrov is being held as an anniversary celebration; the Russian women’s national program came into being 25 years ago this year. It is also serving as a replacement tournament for the planned Four-Nations competition in Sweden, canceled after the Swedish national team went on strike this summer (that strike was resolved in mid-October, but too late to salvage the tournament). It will be the second tournament in charge for new Russian head coach Yevgeni Bobariko; his first ended with a loss in the Final of a Four-Nations tournament in Finland in August. Team Finland will be joining Team Russia in Dmitrov, while Czechia, Switzerland, and Germany make up the rest of the field.

Coach Bobariko has selected the following lineup for his squad’s pre-tournament camp:

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 St. Petersburg)
• Yekaterina Nikolayeva (Dynamo St. Petersburg)
• Alina Orlova (Gorny St. Petersburg)
• Nina Pirogova (Tornado Moscow Oblast)
• Anna Savonina (Tornado Moscow Oblast)
• Nadezhda Volf (SK Sverdlovsk Oblast)

Forwards:

• Oxana Bratishcheva (SKIF Nizhny Novgorod)
• Yekaterina Dobrodeyeva (Biryusa Krasnoyarsk)
• Landish Falyakhova (SKIF Nizhny Novgorod)
• Fanuza Kadirova (Gorny St. Petersburg)
• Diana Kanayeva (Dynamo St. Petersburg)
• Yekaterina Lebedeva (Agidel Ufa)
• Yekaterina Likhachyova (SKIF Nizhny Novgorod)
• Valeriya Pavlova (Biryusa Krasnoyarsk)
• Yelizaveta Rodnova (Agidel Ufa)
• Anna Shokhina (Tornado Moscow Oblast)
• Alevtina Shtaryova (Tornado Moscow Oblast)
• Olga Sosina (Agidel Ufa)
• Alexandra Vafina (Gorny St. Petersburg)

Also in camp as reserves are: goalies Yelizaveta Kondakova (Tornado) and Valeriya Tarakanova (SKIF), defender Anna Shibanova (Agidel), and forwards Yevgeniya Dyupina (Dynamo), Viktoriya Kulishova (SKIF), Elina Mitrofanova (Agidel), Alyona Starovoitova (Tornado), and Anna Timofeyeva (Biryusa).

Some young players are getting a look with this roster; Volf I mentioned above, but her fellow-defender Alina Orlova is another example, as are forward Landish Falyakhova and Yelizaveta Rodnova. None of those four has played at a senior World Championship (or Olympics) yet, but are very much in the mix for next spring’s tournament.

Olga Sosina. (Image Source)

However, this is far from an “experimental” roster. The goalies are all proven internationals (particularly Prugova and Morozova, with Merkusheva having made her senior Worlds debut last season after a stellar U18 career). On defence, familiar names include Ganeyeva, Piragova, Nikolayeva, and Batalova, and up front we have the formidable Olga Sosina, reigning ZhHL scoring champion Anna Shokhina, as well as Valeriya Pavlova, Fanuza Kadirova, Alexandra Vafina and so on. A nice mix of the tried-and-true and the up-and-coming, and it will be interesting to see how they get on.

The Five-Nations tournament will be straight round-robin, running from the sixth to the tenth of November. Russia opens against Finland on the sixth, then plays Germany next day. The eighth is an off-day for Bobariko’s crew, and they wrap up the tournament against Switzerland (Nov. 9) and Czechia (Nov. 10).

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Thank you for reading!