Dynamo Neva makes history
Petersburg club wins its first Russian Women’s championship.
Dynamo Neva won the Russian Women’s Hockey League title for the first time in its history, defeating Biryusa Krasnoyarsk 4-1 in the final series.
Petersburg-based Dynamo ousted defending champion Agidel Ufa – the outstanding Russian women’s team in recent seasons – in the semi-final to set up a best-of-seven tilt against Biryusa. Whoever won would make history with its first WHL triumph.
Biryusa was the higher seed but suffered a 0-2 loss on home ice in the opening game of the series. Diana Farkhutdinova posted her 23rd WHL shut-out, cementing her claims to this year’s MVP award.
In game two, Biryusa won 4-2 to tie the series. However, after that Dynamo took control. Alexandra Vafina’s goal secured a hard-fought overtime win in Petersburg, and that was followed with a 4-1 victory to put Petersburg one game away from glory.
The action returned to Krasnoyarsk for game five, with Biryusa aware that only victory would keep the season alive. However, it was Vafina who opened the scoring early in the second period. Oxana Mitrofanova tied it up, but Vafina struck again just before the hooter to make it 2-1 going into the third.
Mitrofanova went on to match Vafina’s two-goal haul, but her 53rd-minute marker was too late: Ksenia Ponomaryova had already potted a third, title-winning goal for Dynamo Neva.
“At the end of the game we let them get one back. Then we played with five defenders, the girls were getting tired,” said Dynamo head coach Alexander Zybin. “Some of them were worried, but I believed in them, I believed in Farkhutinova, and we got the win. [Biryusa goalie] Darya Grezden also deserved to be named MVP, but we won the cup so it was right to give it to Diana.”
Farkhutdinova herself was looking forward to a party on the flight back to St. Petersburg.
“I can promise you that our flight home will be the happiest Dynamo flight of the season,” she smiled. “It feels great, I’m still shaking a little. I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet. A year ago we lost in the final and that hurt, so today I’m so happy for our team.
“Today we didn’t panic at the end, we wanted to get it finished quickly.”
Dynamo forward Polina Bolgareva added: “We’ve worked so long for this. Our club has only been in existence for 10 years, and it’s the first time we’ve won the championship. The final game was a fight to the last, Biryusa gave us a real battle, they threw everything at us. We couldn’t celebrate until that final hooter. There were times when Biryusa had us under pressure, but we had experience of playing other finals. We won because of our character, and the belief that we could do it.”
Mitrofanova, whose two goals in Wednesday’s game were not enough to keep the series alive, was looking to the future. “This loss will make us stronger,” she said. “We just needed a little bit more luck in front of their net. We had a good season, we got to our first final, but we just came up a bit short.”
