UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE (06/29/97)

UKRAINIAN PRO HOCKEY UPDATE

by Ihor Stelmach

Washington's Bondra scoring machine

Scoring goals is a hoot ... when your team is winning. So when Lutsk, Ukraine, native Peter Bondra sat stonefaced in the visitor's dressing room at The Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim after scoring three goals this past season, he was not dissatisfied with his own performance. Rather, his Washington Capitals had just suffered their fifth straight loss and Bondra was struggling to find any enjoyment in his personal success. He had done his job extremely well, as usual, but it was just not enough.

"When you score a hat trick you know you have made a contribution," Bondra said. "But when your team loses the game, what do your goals mean? I want to be happy and that means our team has to win more."

That, unfortunately for Bondra and the Capitals, was familiar scenario. The hapless Capitals were in a fight with the Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Montreal Canadiens and the then Hartford Whalers for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference most of this past season (a fight eventually won by the surprise upstart Senators).

They didn't make it, but don't blame Bondra. Since the start of the 1994-1995 season, only one player - Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins - has scored more goals than the Capitals' star right winger.

And Jagr has a distinct advantage. The opposition can't afford to concentrate solely on defending against him. The Penguins also have scoring stars Mario Lemieux (since retired from hockey), Petr Nedved, Ron Francis and others.

The hapless Capitals? Well, there's Joe Juneau. You know, the talented center who rarely shoots the puck. There's Adam Oates, whose scoring reputation is based mostly on his play-making abilities. They also have fellow Ukrainian Steve Konowalchuk. He was the Capitals' second leading goal scorer in 1995-1996 with 23 - less than half the number of goals Bondra scored.

Bondra's 52 goals in 1995-1996 represented 27 percent of the Capitals' offense in games he played and led the NHL in that department for the second straight year. The year before, he topped the NHL, scoring 25 percent of the Capitals' goals in games he played.

This past season it was more of the same. Bondra continued to be Washington's sole scoring threat. He had 46 goals in 77 games. It's an old notion, but oh, so true: stop Peter Bondra and you stop the Washington Capitals.

"The amazing thing about Peter's success this year is he did it without a No. 1 line left winger most of the time," said ex-Washington coach Jim Schoenfeld. "Chris Simon would have been his left winger, but he was out for a month plus with a bad back. Even his center, Michal Pivonka, was out for a couple of months, so on most nights it was Peter against the other team's top defensive pairing and top checking line."

Over his first three years in the NHL, Bondra showed decent progress, scoring 12, 28 and 37 goals, respectively. Then, in 1993-1994, he slipped to 24 goals in 69 games.

"I had a very disappointing year and I decided something had to change," Bondra readily admitted. "I decided I needed to get stronger, especially in my upper body. Not to run over people, but to stay on my feet when I get hit and to help me get to where I want to be when I'm carrying the puck."

Getting stronger helped him take his scoring to the next level. He scored at 60-goal paces the next two seasons. But his real strength is his skating. Bondra won the fastest skater competition at the NHL All-Star Game last January. And even though the competition was a little watered down - defending champion Mike Gartner wasn't present and speedster Paul Coffey declined to participate - it was a good indicator of how fast Bondra really is.

"Speed is his greatest asset," Schoenfeld said. "When he's going, he's as exciting a player to watch as there is in the league. And he's very difficult to defend. Defensemen are forced to back up or they risk getting burned. When they back up, he has such a quick release, he can beat them with his shot. He's the complete scoring machine."

Schoenfeld said he was conscious of not overplaying Bondra for fear of wearing him out, but liked to use him when the Capitals were a man short. Bondra equaled last year's total of four short-handed goals. Bondra said the situation in the game dictates his approach.

"If we're down a goal or two, you look for the opportunity to burn the other team's defensemen," Bondra said. "If their defenseman makes a mistake, you have to punish him. On the other hand, you have to remember why you are out there: to kill the penalty."

In the movies, there's Bond. James Bond. On NHL ice rinks there's Bondra. Peter Bondra. Goal scorer, opposition punisher and penalty killer!

Andreychuk injured

At a team meeting a few days after he suffered a fractured left ankle in the final game of the regular season, Ukrainian Dave Andreychuk asked his New Jersey Devils teammates for a favor: get to the third round of the playoffs. That would have given the 33-year-old left winger a chance to return for a crack at his first Stanley Cup ring.

"That's all I can hope for, I guess," Andreychuk said at that time. "The only nightmares I have are if the team loses and I don't have a chance to play."

Andreychuk must have had some restless and sleepless nights.

The Devils did their best to accommodate their fallen teammate. They eliminated the Montreal Canadiens in five games in the first round, before being eliminated themselves by their arcrivals from across the river, the New York Rangers, also in five games.

Andreychuk's injury occurred in a meaningless game last April 13 against the Philadelphia Flyers. Steve Thomas, Martin Brodeur and Scott Stevens were all rested, but Andreychuk played. With 7:09 remaining in the second period, he was hooked around the neck by Flyers' rookie defenseman Janne Niinimaa and fell awkwardly behind the net. At first it was thought he would not require surgery for a fractured ankle, but that changed when it appeared the fracture became displaced. Surgery was performed on April 19.

"It's tough that I had to watch and I hoped that I got a chance to play, but I couldn't do anything about that," the frustrated Andreychuk said. "I just wanted to be ready if I got a chance."

The Hammer Schultz comes down in Madison

Dave Schultz, 47, wanted to get back into coaching next year, after his youngest son graduated from high school. But when the Colonial League's Madison Monsters offered him a job last summer, the former Philadelphia Flyers' enforcer jumped at the chance. So, with his family in Philadelphia, "The Hammer" is behind the bench for the first time since coaching a roller hockey team in 1993.

"I was going to spend the winter pursuing something for 1997-1998," said Schultz, who coached the short-lived Atlantic Coast League's New York Slapshots during the 1980s.

Leaving his family behind in Philadelphia, where he managed a hockey rink for seven years, was difficult. "You have to make sacrifices to get where you want to go," Schultz said. "It's more difficult for them.

The Monsters had a respectable record sitting fourth in the West Division. Surprisingly, the Monsters didn't play the same style of hockey that made Schultz famous during the Broad Street Bullies era in Philadelphia. Madison was the least-penalized team in the league.

"I'm more prepared than ever," said the half-Ukrainian (His mother is 100 percent Ukrainian-blooded). "There is nothing I don't enjoy about it."

Russian rearguard takes bite

Russian defenseman Nikolay Marinenko ended his tour of the West Coast League a little early. The Central Army defender bit off part of the ear of Reno Renegades' forward Stu Kulak, a Ukrainian, during a December 22, 1996, exhibition game. WCHL commissioner Mike Myers suspended Marinenko the final three games of the team's tour.

Kulak and Marinenko were involved in a fight late in the first period when Kulak emerged, claiming he was bitten.

"The top part of his ear was disattached," said WCHL spokesman Sammy Wallace. "It wasn't very pleasant. Doctors will be able to have it reattached, though."

The game had to be forfeited by the Renegades because Reno players refused to continue playing after the incident. The Russian team completed its tour last December with a 7-4-1 record. Ouch!

Tymchyshyn's decision keeps Big Red in hunt

Sometimes recruiting contacts pay off in the most unforeseen ways. When Cornell assistant coach Matt Carlin was an assistant at Dartmouth, one of the players he tried to get to Hanover, N.H., was center Darren Tymchyshyn. But the young Ukrainian, a native of Vegreville, Alberta, instead decided to accept a scholarship offer from Illinois-Chicago.

But when Illinois-Chicago dropped its hockey program in the offseason last year, Carlin again went out after Tymchyshyn and convinced him to transfer to Cornell.

Tymchyshyn was a welcome addition for the Big Red. With the graduation of several forwards, Big Red coach Mike Shafer needed another offensive threat and someone with experience. Tymchyshyn fit the bill.

"He was a great pick up off the waiver wire," Shafer joked.

Tymchyshyn scored two goals and totalled 17 points in 34 games with Illinois-Chicago two seasons ago. Through his first 19 games this past season (later stats not yet available), he had a team-high nine goals and 13 points.

"We asked him to shoot more," Shafer said. "Hopefully, he'll start picking up the assists he left behind in Chicago."

Shafer enjoyed another talented freshman class, but the addition of an experienced player such as Tymchyshyn was a real plus.

"It's nice to get a guy with college experience," Shafer said. He's a natural center who has been playing right wing for the first time and he has made a nice adjustment."

Tymchyshyn's contributions helped Cornell stay right in the thick of the Eastern College Athletic Conference title race.

(Quotes courtesy of Mike Brophy, Rich Chere, Brendan Savage and Tom Boggie of The Hockey News.)

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