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Petersburg club wins its first Russian Women’s championship

Agidel Ufa won the Russian Women’s Hockey League for the fourth time. In Sunday’s decisive game, a 3-2 win over Dynamo Neva was enough to clinch victory in the best-of-five series and regain the title it last won in 2021.

Olga Sosina, captain of Agidel and Team Russia, led from the front to snatch a dramatic victory for her team in the deciding game of the Women’s Hockey League season. The 2020-2021 final, delayed from March due to the pandemic, was completed at last in Mytishchi on Saturday. And, in an epic winner-takes-all battle, Agidel won the title back from the Vanke Rays in a shoot-out.

KRS Shenzhen Vanke Rays forward Emily Costales was a member of the 2020 WHL Championship roster, but her season hardly ended with a happily ever after. Assisted off the ice with a knee injury in the definitive clash against Agidel Ufa, she never got to experience the rush of the final seconds or the hurricane of confetti that fell on her teammates’ shoulders. Wheeled into the locker room after the presentation had ended, her tearful reunion left a fire burning for a retake. Up until two weeks ago, the Vanke Rays were on track to deliver that redemption — winning the regular season and sweeping the semifinals versus Biryusa.

The Women’s World Championship starts next month — and the Women’s Hockey League is set to be well represented when the action gets underway in Canada. In total, 33 players from four countries have made the preliminary rosters for their national teams.

Update on the final series.

2020 was a challenging, unusual and difficult year. But, at the same time, we will remember it for several reasons ... and here are some of the most important.