Ukraine competes in World Junior Hockey Championship

by Andrii Wynnyckyj

TORONTO - For the second time in two years, Ukraine's national Junior hockey team surprised its U.S. counterparts in tournament play, this time with a 4-3 victory at the 1996 World Junior Hockey Championship held in Massachusetts.

The first time came on January 2, 1995 at the 1995 Worlds in Red Deer, Alberta, as Ukraine's Oleksa Lazarenko swept in the U.S. goalie on a breakaway with 13 seconds left to go in the game, and sent the Ukrainian Canadian fans at the arena into orbit.

Unfortunately, just as they'd struggled at the 1995 tournament, the rest of the way at the 1996 championships did not go well either. In round-robin play, Team Ukraine lost all three of its other games and was outscored 9-20, then lost two more in the relegation playoffs.

This year's contingent was made up mostly of players for Sokil Kyiv and its farm team. The tournament marked the return of Sokil goalie Ihor Karpenko, billed in the official program as "little giant" at 5'8" 158 pounds, and an all-star of last year's tournament. He had been picked 185th over-all by the National Hockey League's Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the 1995 draft.

The other NHL draft pick in Team Ukraine's line-up was forward Oleksa Lazarenko, who formerly played for CSKA Moscow and is now with the Chicoutimi team in the Quebec junior league. He was taken 182nd over-all by the New York Rangers in 1994.

The victory

Ukraine's lone win in the championship came on December 27, 1995, the second day of competition. Mr. Karpenko turned away 29 of 32 shots in a see-saw battle at Boston's Matthews Arena.

Ukraine opened the scoring within two minutes of the opening face-off, after U.S.A.'s Erik Rasmussen took an early hooking penalty. The host team took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, but Ukraine pulled ahead in the second period, thanks to goals by centerman Danylo Didkovsky and left-winger Mykola Yaprintsev.

About five minutes into the third period, the U.S.A. tied it up, but at 6:05, Alex Zinevitch took a pass from Oleksander Yakovenko and zipped it past U.S. netminder Marc Magliarditi to go up 4-3.

The pressure was intense for the remaining 14 minutes, as the home team had three power play opportunities, but the Ukrainians held on for the win.

The round robin

Despite the auspicious beginning, the next day the kids from Kyiv suffered a dispiriting loss to Finland. The Finns hammered Mr. Karpenko with 56 shots. The Ukrainians managed only a single marker, notched by Mr. Zinevitch to create a short-lived 1-1 tie in the first period.

For Ukraine and its fans, the most frustrating game of the tournament was a furious brawl-marred match against fellow cellar-dwelling Switzerland at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Mass. on December 30. Over the first two periods, Ukraine outshot the Swiss 23-11, and yet were outscored 4-2.

At 3:21 of the third period, centerman Yuriy Horulko converted a pass from Mr. Lazarenko to bring Ukraine within one, but the Swiss seemed to come out of their defensive shell. They mounted a concerted attack and netted another goal with just over 5 minutes to go.

As the clock ticked down, the game turned ugly. A vicious slash by Swiss forward Sandy Jeannin earned him a penalty with just 20 seconds left, but it also set off a melee, and both sides lost a player to roughing penalties.

Then, as 20:00 appeared on the scoreboard signaling the end of the game, an all-out fist fest erupted. Four players on both sides were given match penalties, an automatic sanction for fighting in international hockey, whose officials consider it to be neither entertainment nor part of "character building" as do certain Canadian TV commentators.

This proved to be a particularly costly lapse in discipline for Ukraine, which lost two forwards, Mr. Lazarenko and Oleh Krvkunenko, and two veteran defensemen Serhiy Deshevy and Vasyl Polonytsky for two games.

The-Canadian juggernaut

On the last day of the old year, (in their last game of the round robin), Ukraine's juniors absorbed an 8-1 shellacking at the hands of the eventual tournament champions, Canada.

The Canadians tied a record of four-straight world golds set by the Soviets, and also won every game they played, extending their unbeaten streak to 20 tournament games.

In the contest with Ukraine, Mr. Karpenko showed once again why he has attracted the hockey world's attention, turning away 23 of 24 shots in the first period alone (usually an entire game's worth), facing a total of 63 that afternoon.

Ukraine barely managed to get on the scoreboard in the third period, when Mykola Yaprintsev capitalized on a powerplay feed from Roman Salnikov and Vladyslav Shevchenko. The Ukrainians threw only 15 shots at back-up Canadian netminder Marc Denis in the game.

Didkovsky a hero

The new year began in vexing fashion, as Ukraine lost 6-3 to Slovakia in the first game of the relegation round on January 2. However, a dramatic moment came when Mr. Didkovsky was hauled down on a breakaway at 3:19 of the second period. Awarded a penalty shot, he swooped in on Slovakia's hapless goalie, Stanislav Petrik, and scored.

A crowd might have gone wild, but only a handful of people and some NHL scouts were at the NES Center for the game. Unfortunately, this was representative of the sparse attendance plaguing this year's junior championships - surprising fan indifference in a state considered to be a U.S. hockey hotbed.

Mr. Didkovsky was Team Ukraine's leading scorer in the tournament, with four goals and two assists, 24th over-all.

Relegation

Going into its final game, against Germany on January 3 at the NES Center, the Ukrainians knew that if they lost, their fate was sealed for the coming year.

Although they'd finished last in the 1995 tournament, they'd avoided relegation to the lesser Pool B because of a temporary rule change. If they didn't win this game, they'd be dropped down to Pool B status for 1996 and would be ineligible to play for the 1997 championship.

They didn't win. The iron nerve of netminder Karpenko seemed to give way. He gave up three goals on only eight shots in the first period, another only 52 seconds into the second period, and then a final tally 5 minutes later.

To save him further torture, Mr. Karpenko was yanked in favor of Valeriy Seredenko. The latter acquitted himself well, stopping all 18 shots he faced, but the Germans went home with a 5-0 win, rarely troubled by an anemic Ukrainian offense.

To get back into Pool A, Team Ukraine will have to win the 1997 Pool B championship. They badly need to upgrade their offensive skills, and with mainstay Mr. Karpenko turning 20 in July and thus graduating to-the senior ranks, they face an uphill battle.

But win they can, and against solid opposition. The U.S. team they beat, for the second time, eventually finished fifth in this year's competition.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 14, 1996, No. 2, Vol. LXIV

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