Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sunday, December 29, 1991
"Soviets Defeat Team USA
By Jack McDermott
Right winger Alexander Selivanov scored two goals in the final 1:56
last night at the Coliseum to lift the Soviet Selects to a 5-3 victory over
Team USA in front of 10,819.
Selivanov pushed the puck past Team USA goalie Ray LeBlanc from 10
feet and straight on to complete a three-on-two break, then added an
insurance goal into an empty net with 27 seconds to play.
"We made some glaring mistakes on their final period goals and it cost
us dearly," said Team USA coach Dave Peterson.
"We simply got caught looking. But, we had a goal taken away from us
in the second period when they (officials) ruled that the puck went off a
players' skate and wiped it out. If that goal had counted, we would have
been in a completely different situation down the stretch."
David Emma pulled the United States to within 3-2, 1:01 into the final
period and Tim Sweeney tied it at 3:35 of the third period.
The Soviets opened a 2-0 lead with right winger Nikolai Borchevsky
pushing the puck past LeBlanc from in front of goal with 44 seconds gone in
the first period. Defenseman Yuri Yashin picked up an assist on the play,
feeding the puck to Borchevsky from the right of goal.
Left winger Alexei Tkachuk scored on a similar play from in front of
LeBlanc at 9:04 of the first period, with the assist going to Borchevsky.
Clark Donatelli put the United States on the scoreboard with 14
seconds remaining in the period on a power-play goal from 10 feet on the
left of Selects' goalie Alexei Maruin, cutting the Soviets' lead to 2-1.
Leblanc faced 10 shots in the opening period. Maryin faced seven
shots.
Borchevsky picked up his second goal of the night giving the Soviets a
3-1 lead at 3:45 of the second period. Borchevsky angled the puck past
LeBlanc from 10 feet on the right. Assists went to center Igor Boldin and
Yashin.
The Selects took 12 shots on goal in the second period. Team USA
fired off 10 shots and Maryin handled them flawlessly.
Emma brought Team USA to within a goal, scoring from 10 feet on the
right, with assists going to Donatelli and Sweeney.
Sweeney tied the game 2:34 later on a breakaway. Sweeney came
charging between the circles at Maryin and fired a shot from 5 feet. Emma
got the assist.
"I'm not pleased with tonight's outcome, but we are making progress,"
Peterson said. "This is a very critical time for my entire coaching staff.
We're now making serious decisions every day. In all probability, our team
will be decided by January 1."
The victory lifts the Soviets' record to 4-0 (2-0 against Team USA) on
their current eight-game tour of the United States. Team USA falls to 14-
26-6 overall and 6-13-3 against international competition.
* John Fritsche, 25, a graduate of Padua High School, recently had a
tryout with Team USA. Fritsche is playing for EV Zug in Switzerland."
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Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sunday, December 29, 1991
"Young Hockey Fan Scores Autographs from Olympians
By Laura Yee
Ten-year-old Nathan Boehn laced up his first pair of ice skates
shortly after he learned how to walk. For the last year, he has played
hockey in a junior league representing his hometown of North Olmsted.
He aspires to play hockey professionally or on the U.S. Olympic team.
Nathan says he has a serious passion for the sport.
So he was awed yesterday when he stumbled across an opportunity to
meet and get autographs from three members of the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
at the Growth Association's Holiday Ice Skating Rink on Public Square.
"I was pretty excited," said Nathan, a fifth-grader at Butternut
Elementary School who was with his family yesterday on a routine trip to
Tower City. "I'll probably hang this on the wall in my bedroom. I'll put
a No. 1 on it each time they win."
Before members of the hockey team compete in the winter Olympics in
February in Albertville, France, they will play in exhibition games like
the one last night against a Russian team at the Coliseum in Richfield.
The hockey team also takes every opportunity to promote the 1992
Olympics and the USA Hockey Program, the organization that oversees the
U.S. Olympic Hockey Team.
"It's a way for us to get people excited about the upcoming Olympics,"
said team member Jim Johannson of Minnesota, who was on the 1988 Olympic
team that placed seventh. "It gives us a chance to meet people who'll be
watching us and for us to meet them."
Johannson was accompanied by team members Lance Pitlick, also of
Minnesota, and Scott Gordon of Massachusetts. Several other team members
visited sporting-goods stores in Greater Cleveland yesterday to meet fans
and sign autographs.
Johannson said he expects the 1992 team to outperform the 1988 team,
because members have been playing against more experienced players in the
intervening years.
Before the 1988 Olympics, exhibition games were mostly against college
hockey teams. The 1992 team has competed in exhibition games against
professional teams here and abroad.
"We've had a tougher schedule, so it's our feeling that it will make
us more prepared," Johannson said yesterday in front of a large trailer
containing a replica of the U.S. Olympic Museum.
Called "Showcase America: The U.S. Olympic Experience," the replica
contained information chronicling the Olympic games since they started in
776 B.C. It also displayed a locater map with names of all the U.S.
participants in the 1992 Olympics.
To cap off the two-hour event, Michelle Forcioni, an 11-year-old
regional junior bronze medalist, gave a figure-skating performance.
"Maybe someday I will compete in the Olympics," said Michelle, of
Middleburg Heights, who has been training under Carol Heiss Jenkins, a 1960
Olympic gold medalist from the Akron area."
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Cleveland Plain Dealer, Saturday, December 28, 1991
"Autograph Hounds Stick it Out
By Michael O'Malley
With anxious autograph seekers outside the ice rink's locker room, one
would have expected Brett Hull or Mario Lemieux to appear. But it was
Alexander, Ilya, Nikolai, Vladimir, Sergei and Oleg who had the kids
waiting.
Following a vigorous one-hour practice at Parma Heights' municipal ice
rink yesterday, members of a Russian hockey team got a taste of America's
thirst for role models and sports celebrities.
After showers and Pepsis-on-the-rocks, players and coaches were met
with Instamatic cameras, pee-wee hockey players offering their sticks for
autographs, reporters and television cameras.
"They're amazing," said Nick Blume, 12, of Parma, who had his stick
signed by Sergei Bushmelev. "Their slap shots and stick handling were
really good. They're fast. Good agility, too."
Coaches and players handed out red and gold Soviet hockey lapel pins.
"A couple of them stood with my son and let me take a picture," said
Dave Prehauser of Parma, who received a lapel pin for his 9-year-old son,
Paul. "They're not snobbish."
The players, all from Moscow, are on the Soviet Select hockey team
from which Olympic players are selected. The team name is Spartack. They
have been on a playing tour in the United States since Dec. 18 and will
leave for home Jan. 6.
They play the USA Hockey team at 8 tonight at the Richfield Coliseum.
The political turmoil under way in the players' homeland apparently
has not affected their game. They're 3-0 on the tour, beating the Canadian
and U.S. hockey teams in Albany, N.Y., and the Clarkson University team in
Potsdam, N.Y.
"Mentally, we're prepared for what's happening (politically) now,"
said head coach Alexander Yakushev, speaking through an interpreter.
"Economically and politically, of course, we have some problems. We would
like to bring some joy to Russia, which is very difficult now."
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's central
government, it is uncertain whether the Commonwealth of Independent States
will send one team or several to the Olympics after the 1992 games.
After the 1992 games, the red hockey jerseys emblazoned with the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republic letters CCCP will become historic relics.
"This is the last time in these jerseys," said Alexander Kozhevnikov,
a team official.
Bob Allen, vice president of USA Hockey, the governing organization of
amateur hockey in the United States, said he negotiated the tour with the
Soviet Ice Hockey Federation.
"As far as we know, they're still in existence," Allen said. "We're
going to use the Soviet national anthem (tonight). And if we can find a
Russian flag, we're going to use that."
Yesterday's practice featured shooting and inter-squad scrimmages,
including a game played the width of the ice rink instead of the length.
Allen said the short ice game improves passing an reflex, "Short passes.
Quicker. You've got to be quicker," he said.
Following the practice, the 22 players who are, on average, 26 years
old, were treated to pasta at a local Italian restaurant and to a shopping
spree at Parmatown mall.
"They really enjoy our hotels and food," Allen said. "They love to
eat. They're like 22 Electroluxes."
After Cleveland, the team heads for Atlanta, St. Petersburg, Orlando,
Houston, Dallas and home."
--
[log in to unmask] (Eric Rickin)
Shaker Heights, Ohio: Featured in the New York Times. That's the rink
where I watch hockey in every weekend, and I live a minute away from
there. (-:
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