Ringing ice of victory

The President’s team are the champion of the Republican Hockey League

The 18th season of the Republican Hockey League is already history. On April 5th, the President’s team and the Minsk Region squad competed for the championship title on the ice of Minsk’s Olympic Arena, where once again there were no empty seats. In the first match, the Head of State’s team won 5:1. In the return meeting, the Minsk Region’s representatives were determined to take their revenge. The match was spectacular and incredibly exciting, but once again luck was on the side of the President’s ice hockey squad.

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The entourage at the President’s team matches has long been the subject for a separate conversation. The fans never stop talking and the noise in the arena is so loud you can’t hear your own voice. It’s a pleasure to play in such an atmosphere.
The Minsk Region hockey players started the meeting without shaking, while their opponents, as people say in such cases, forgot to leave the locker room. By the eighth minute, the contenders for the championship title were leading 2:0. Aleksei Yefimenko with passes from Nikolai Lukashenko and Maksim Parfeyevets quickly got one goal back, but it didn’t help to turn the tide of the game: 4:1 after the first period! There was a hint of sensation!
Curiously, last year’s return match between these teams started with a similar scenario, with the Minsk Region squad winning the first period 4:3. After the match, Dmitry Baskov, the head coach of the Head of State’s squad, admitted that a very serious conversation had taken place in the locker room at that moment, but he did not reveal any details. However, the emotional boost had an effect: in the second period, the hockey players from the President’s team woke up and looked like themselves. The fans were waiting for the second period with great anticipation and genuine interest. They wondered: how would it be this time?
“This is the kind of hockey we need,” Nikolai Ozerov might have said if he had been watching the events of this game. Taking the words of a famous song as their motto: ‘The puck is flying from the gate, we have only one way — forward’, from the first moments of the second third of the game the President’s team rushed to get back on track and soon Aleksei Shantyka scored. The experienced guys from the President’s squad were playing like champions, but Shchepko caught the crazy courage and confidently coped with all the hail of pucks that flew into his goal. He played like Vladislav Tretiak in a series against Canadian professionals, was inimitable and played perhaps the best game of his life. Aleksandr Lukashenko sent his partners into promising attacks several times with sharp passes, but the opponents’ goal was as if enchanted. The rivals were in no way inferior to each other, and the spectators witnessed not only bright, attacking hockey, but also plenty of real men’s power struggle. After the second period, the winner of the game and the tournament was still to be decided — 4:2 in favour of the guys from the Minsk Region. The fans were waiting for the final third of the game, rubbing their hands together.

 












Aleksandr Kulevsky


It was hot on the ice! Not even four minutes later, three pucks flew into the goal of the favoured Maksim Shchepko. The President’s team picked up the pace and Yaroslav Chupris, Oleg Antonenko and Maksim Parfeyevets turned the game around: the reigning champion took the lead for the first time in the match —5:4. But it was not the final yet, as the representatives of the Minsk Region did not even think of giving up: Artyom Kotkovets made a hat-trick, bringing the score to 5:5! The main time of the match did not reveal the winner. Extra time!
The spectators followed the course of this incredible duel, holding their breath — such intensity is not always seen even in professional hockey. The teams were worthy of each other, but the extra time also did not reveal the best. It was decided only by a post-match shootout and an accurate shot by Andrei Kostitsyn. Bravo! The President’s team are the champion again!

BEST PLAYERS OF REPUBLICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE-2024/25

Goalkeeper — Maksim Shchepko (Minsk Region). Defenceman — Aleksandr Kudryavtsev (Minsk Region). Forward — Maksim Parfeyevets (President’s team). Top scorer — Andrei Kostitsyn (President’s team): 22 (10+12) points across 9 games.

By Sergei Kanashits