Ice hockey

It is believed that the first match in the history of Belarusian hockey took place in the winter of 1940 in Brest, where students of the Minsk Institute of Physical Education came to play. Starting in the autumn of 1939, when Soviet power spread to Western Belarus, the trips of “Easterners” athletes with demonstration performances in Grodno, Brest, Bialystok carried an ideological background and were signed according to the plans approved by the party. The host team hastily assembled in Brest held a match under the banner of the city’s national team. The result of 7:2 in favor of the guests speaks more about the situation in the city above the Bug, which passed from Poland to the new Soviet jurisdiction, than about the strength of the Minsk students.

Hockey appeared in Brest a dozen years earlier than in 1940. The first Polish champion was determined in 1927, the game became widespread in the early thirties, which, let’s assume, was the time of the Brest residents’ communion. But this has nothing to do with Belarus directly, and, probably, we should agree that a completely different one has been officially adopted as the date of birth of the national hockey.

On the first day of 1948 in the park named after Gorky ice rink opened at the stadium “Pishchevik”, which became the center of hockey life in post-war Minsk. In the same year, Belarusian hockey players made their debut in the second group of the USSR championship. Torpedo took the last eighth place in its zone. The only point scored (a draw with Lokomotiv Kharkiv) corresponded to the level of the novice team and the possibilities of its preparation. The ice rink on the “Pishchevik” was poured over a football field, a hockey box was placed in the center, around which skaters and vacationers swung circles. Belarusians, as it turned out, were not used to fast ice, which did not differ in specularity on the “Food Truck”: carelessly cleared, twisted from mass use, all in bumps – it was convenient to stand on it, but not to roll. About the same thing was observed inside the box, which did not contribute to the growth of skill.

But the following season, having changed their car factory affiliation to the Spartak brand, Minsk residents took the fourth place out of seven in their zone of the second division. And in 1949, which dates back to the picture, the Minsk team won the championship of the Spartak Central Committee in Petrozavodsk. We have the pioneers of Belarusian hockey in front of us: a good half of them had to do with the Torpedo debut a year earlier.

The wider development of hockey in Belarus began in the late fifties. Since that time, the number of hockey players in the republic has been increasing significantly. So, if in 1950 there were 300 people, and in 1955 there were 400, then ten years later, in 1965, 8000 athletes played hockey. The popularity of this sport was greatly facilitated by the success of the Torpedo Minsk team (coach P. Baranov), which, having taken first place in the USSR championship among B-class teams in 1966, won the right to challenge the country’s championship in matches with clubs of the strongest league. However, the car manufacturers in the elite of Soviet hockey did not stay long, having flown out in the same season. But still, this success did not go unnoticed for the development of hockey in our country: many participants of the breakthrough worked as coaches in the future, and Belarusian hockey has more fans. And a year before the Torpedo team entered the top league, in October 1965, the Belarusians held their first international meeting. Torpedo (Minsk) with a score of 11:2, the Swiss team “Geneva-Servette” won. In addition, the opening of an artificial ice rink in the Minsk Sports Palace in 1966 was of great importance for the training of local highly qualified hockey players.

The rapid development of hockey and the expanded geography of the spread of this sport made it possible to hold the BSSR hockey championship. The teams competed in two groups. Nine teams took part in the strongest, first group, and eight in the weakest, second group. The championship was held in four rounds (two on their own ice, two away). The champion of the BSSR, who recognized the team that won the first group, according to the Regulations on the championship, was awarded a rolling prize of the BSSR Sports Committee and a diploma, the team players were awarded gold medals, diplomas and valuable gifts. Silver and bronze medals were provided for the second and third places. It should be noted that the level of the BSSR championship was low. The main explanation for this, again, is the lack of artificial ice sites in the province. Firstly, because of this, some championships were not completed – spring comes, the ice melts, and the championship is interrupted. Secondly, only two sports schools in the republic trained hockey players – Minsk Sports School No. 12 and Youth Sports School. And many teams were staffed mainly by amateur hockey players.

However, the progressive development of hockey in the country was not interrupted, and brought certain results. Three teams of craftsmen were created. In Minsk – Dynamo, in Grodno – Progress-SHVSM, and Khimik – in Novopolotsk. Although for a long time they could not repeat the success of the Minsk Torpedo of ’66, but high-level Russian hockey players began to appear in their ranks. This is eloquently evidenced by the fact that Belarusians began to be attracted to the USSR national teams of various ranks. The hockey player of Dinamo Minsk was the first to reach this level Mikhail Zakharov, who was included in the junior national team of the Soviet Union at the 1979 European Championship. Then he won a bronze award. Dmitry Erastov, a pupil of the capital’s Youth, joined the USSR youth national team the following year, and brought a gold medal from the 80th World Championship. In the national team of the Soviet Union, the first Belarusian was Yuri Krivokhizha, whom head coach Viktor Tikhonov invited to participate in the tournament for the prizes of the Izvestia newspaper in 1988. And these cases have not become isolated. However, it should be noted that the system of formation of national teams in those years in the USSR prevented the wide representation of hockey players from the periphery of the country. The national teams included almost exclusively players from Moscow clubs – CSKA, Dynamo, Spartak, Krylia Sovetov. And yet Belarusians managed to regularly get into the national teams. You can verify this by looking at the following table.

So, as we can see, the 80s can be called the golden age of Belarusian hockey. After all, the players trained at that time not only managed to reach a high international level, but also formed the backbone of the national team of Belarus in the 90s. Let’s focus in more detail on the development of Belarusian hockey in the late eighties, since this period immediately precedes the emergence of sovereign Belarus, and, accordingly, the sovereign hockey of Belarus. In 1989, Dinamo Minsk, under the guidance of coach Vladimir Krikunov, finally repeated the achievement of Torpedo in 1966 – they entered the top league of the USSR championship. Note that at that time the team was formed almost exclusively on the basis of homegrown players from the Yunost school. The first season remained a record for Dynamo – they took 10th place out of 16 teams. At the same time, Progress-SHVSM Grodno performed well in the first league, and Khimik Novopolotsk – in the second. So, the following years became the peak of the development of Belarusian club hockey in the USSR. Although in the future Dynamo regularly took places at the end of the standings, and Progress and Chemist never managed to achieve a grade upgrade, in general, this period became very successful. In those years, hockey players were gathered in these teams, who would then make up the real glory of hockey in our country. Judge for yourself, the Dynamo players were Rasolko, Tsyplakov, Zankovets, Karachun, Krivokhizha, Shcheblanov, Alekseev, Shumidub, Zakharov, Matushkin, Antonenko, Vasily and Dmitry Pankov, Bekbulatov, Romanov, Lozhkin, Galchenyuk, Yudin, Mikulchik. Gavrilenok, Politsinsky, Fatikov, Khmyl, Nichiukhin, Pstiga, Svito, Leontiev, Stefanovich played in Progress under the direction of Anatoly Varivonchik. Many famous hockey players in the future were also in the Novopolotsk club – Makritsky, Stas, Runets, Prima, Gusov, Ovsyannikov, Belkin, Pigulevsky. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Belarusian hockey still exists on the foundation built in those years. However, the peaceful development of our clubs was interrupted by the turbulent political events that took place on the territory of the USSR. In 1992, the transitional tournament in which Dinamo Minsk participated was prematurely interrupted.

By the time of the collapse of the USSR, there were three teams of craftsmen on the territory of our country: Dynamo, Neman and Chemist. Of course, a full-fledged championship was out of the question. Dinamo Minsk (later called Tivali) quickly managed to find a suitable tournament – an International hockey League was organized with the participation of teams from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Latvia, which existed until 1996. But the situation of Grodno and Novopolotsk hockey was unenviable. Suitable options were being sought in different directions: Neman, for example, was going to enter the Polish championship. Eventually, both teams started playing in the Russian First League. And a championship was organized in Belarus, which became the rightful heir to the BSSR championship, both in terms of the level of performing teams and in terms of the importance of testing young hockey players. But then Khimik and Neman were forced to withdraw from the Russian tournament, and in 1996, Tivali returned. The solution was found simple – Belarus, Ukraine and Latvia (which were later joined by clubs of the lower divisions of Russia, clubs of Poland and Latvia) organized the Eastern European Hockey League. A separate competition was held at the meetings of the Belarusian teams, and thus the champion of our country was determined. This step at one time allowed us to maintain the high pace of development of hockey in the republic due to meetings with strong rivals. And the last WEHL championship was held in the 2003-2004 season. In 2004, Belarusian clubs no longer needed the VECHL.

Thanks to the state’s concern for the development of hockey in the country, a program for the construction of Ice Palaces was adopted. Thus, artificial ice appeared in Gomel, Mogilev, Brest and Vitebsk. Hockey clubs have sprung up in these cities. In addition, tax incentives were provided to Belarusian hockey, which made it possible to increase the financing of this sport. And gradually our club hockey began to dominate the region. A separate championship of Belarus began to be held. In 2004, WEHL was ordered to live a long time. And the leading teams of Ukraine and Latvia got the opportunity to compete in the Open Championship of Belarus, held under the auspices of the Hockey Federation of our country.

The founding conference of the Ice Hockey Federation of the Republic of Belarus was held in Minsk on March 6, 1992. Yevgeny Ankudo was elected its first chairman (the next chairmen were Lev Kontarovich and Vladimir Naumov), Nikolay Besprozvannykh was vice-chairman, Lev Kontarovich was General Secretary, and Andrey Zhuravsky was executive Director. And already on May 8 of the same year, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) accepted the Belarusian Federation into its membership along with similar organizations from other countries of the Union of Independent States. However, the emergence of the Federation is only the first step towards the separate existence of our hockey. In the same year, the Russian Federation announced that the previously created CIS national team would play its last matches at the Olympic Games in Albertville (by the way, Belarusian Nikolai Borshchevsky was also included in its composition). After that, the Russian national team will be created, which will become the first receiver of the national teams of the USSR and the CIS. So, the rest of the republics of the former Soviet Union were forced to create their own national teams. Belarus did not stand aside either. The coach of Dinamo Minsk was appointed the head coach of the newly formed national team Vladimir Safonov. The youth team was headed by Anatoly Varivonchik, and the junior team was headed by Boris Kosarev. Since the Russians, as the main heirs of Soviet hockey, automatically received a place in the elite division of the world Championships, everyone else had to start from the minimum – group “C”. The first attempt of our team to enter the division a class higher was unsuccessful. In March 1994, in the Slovak Poprad, we lost 1-2 in the decisive match with the hosts. but the next year, in March 1995, the Belarusian national team finally earned a ticket to group “B”. Once again, the first attempt to break into the next stage was unsuccessful. The year is 1996. In the Netherlands, in Eindhoven, the Belarusians lost twice – to the Latvians and the British national team – and they had to part with their dreams of group A of the World Cup for a while. But next year, the national team of Belarus managed to achieve great success in two competitions at once. In February, in Innsbruck, Austria, our team, led by Anatoly Varivonchik, won a ticket to the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano in the fight against the hosts, the Austrian national team, Kazakhstan and Norway. And two months later, in Sosnowiec, Poland, our hockey players finally managed to get into group A of the world championship. Then, more than once, the Belarusian national team managed to create sensations at the world championships. Our team is constantly participating in the “European Hockey Challenge”, achieving considerable success there. But it is worth mentioning separately about the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, where, under the leadership of Vladimir Krikunov, Belarusians achieved the most high-profile achievement in their so far short history. On February 20, on the West Valley ice, thanks to Vladimir Kopat’s puck, they managed to beat the Swedish national team in the quarterfinals and thus reach the 1/2 finals.

The development of hockey in Belarus has not been ignored by the IIHF and the European Hockey Federation. In 2004, two major international tournaments were held on the territory of Belarus at once. The Superfinal of the second most important club competition in Europe, the Continental Cup, was held in Gomel. Two Belarusian teams also took part in it. Keramin Minsk became the fifth, and HC “Gomel, having beaten the Swiss “Lugano” in the semifinals and lost in the decisive match to the Slovak “Slovan”, achieved the biggest success in the history of Belarusian club hockey. And then the Junior World Championship was held in Minsk, which brought together the strongest national teams of the world in this age category.

The Belarusian national ice hockey team ranks 10th in the IIHF ranking.

The team participated in the World Championships 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 and at the Olympic tournaments of 1998, 2002 and 2010. The best achievement at the Olympics is reaching the semifinals, at the World Championships — reaching the quarterfinals.

The youth national ice hockey team of Belarus is not among the world leaders. The team participated in the World Youth Championships in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2007. The team’s highest achievement is the penultimate (9th place). The team did not advance beyond the group round.

The junior national ice hockey team of Belarus is also not among the world leaders. The team participated in the Junior World Championships 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010. The team’s highest achievement is 5th place.

Ice Hockey Federation of the Republic of Belarus
Address: 220020 Minsk, Pobediteley Ave. 20, bldg. 3
Secretary of the Director – Natalya Viktorovna Samantsova
Reception Tel.: +375 (17) 254-54-82,
Fax: +375 (17) 254-58-42
E-mail: info@hockey.by
Website: http://hockey.by/

NGO “Ice Hockey Federation of Minsk”
Phone: 653-22-39 m.
Address: Pervomayskaya st., 3
Chairman: Denisevich Alexander Vladimirovich

Specialized educational and sports institutions that develop hockey in Minsk

Institution “Specialized children’s and youth school of the Olympic Reserve in ice hockey UFKSiT of the Minsk City Executive Committee”
Founded in 1972. Based at the Minsk Arena, which holds 15,000 spectators.
Address: Minsk, Pobediteley Ave., 111.
Contact numbers: +375 (17) 202-46-61, +375 (17) 202-46-63 (fax).
The director is Anatoly Ivanovich Belyaev.

Specialized children’s and youth school of the Olympic Reserve of the state Institution of Physical Culture and Sports “Hockey Club Yunost-Minsk”
Founded in 1975. Based at the Indoor Ice Rink of the Yunost-Minsk Ice Hockey Club, which seats 767 spectators.
Address: Minsk, Pervomayskaya St., 3.
Contact numbers: +375 (17) 294-50-31, +375 (17) 285-27-13 (fax).
The director is Sergey Nikolaevich Mikheenok.

The institution “Minsk children’s and youth sports school of ice hockey BFSO “Dynamo”
Founded in 2005. Based in the Minsk Sports Palace, which seats 3,400 spectators, and on the Ice Arena of the Sports Palace, which seats 200 spectators.
Address: Minsk, Pobediteley Ave., 4a
Contact numbers: +375 (17) 203-74-52, +375 (17) 226-90-48 (fax)
The director is Andrey Leonidovich Zhuravsky.