11/08/2009

October's best players under the lens

Resuming the first two months of MHL play, sports.ru wrote about the performances of its best actors – the prosecutors of Ivannikov's and Zavarzin's dinasty, the new gem of Magnitogorsk school and the Soldier admirer of Nicklas Lidstrom.

Vladimir Zavarzin

Team: Feniks Voskresensk

Age: 20

Role: Forward

Height: 6'3”

Weight: 220

The son of the popular Torpedo Yaroslavl forward Viktor Zavarzin, usually played with number 89 – the same of his birth year. He played in the junior systems of Dinamo, CSKA and Krylya Sovetov, and when he was 13 he moved from defense to attack, and was invited to play into a tournament by a team from Detroit. He spent two years there, but then he missed home too much and once got the passport he got back to Russia. His favorite players are Pavel Bure and Alexander Ovechkin (because of their hands' quickness and skating's speed) and he spends his free time surfing the internet, going to the movies or simply having a walk. Once he used to hit the ice for a game always with the right skate first, but now he stopped.

Nikita Tochitsky

Team: SKA-1946 St. Petersburg

Age: 18

Role: Forward

Height: 6'2”

Weight: 167

A graduate of St. Petersburg's hockey, son of SKA's GM Andrei Tochitsky, either being under the shadow of his dad or being him a kind of a hiding person because of his born during the year of the goat (according to Chinese calendar – ASR) avoided the attention of the press, conform to his zodiac sign. He grew a magnificent, lion-like head of hair, plays with the number 91 – the same as his year of birth. St. Petersburg's fans think that in spite his age and his not big size he might well be the leader of the local junior team. He is a disciplined player who rarely gets penalized and is able to constantly point the opponent crease and got the trust of his coach as shoot out taker.

Vladimir Repin

Team: CSKA-Krasnaya Armiya

Age: 20

Role: Defenseman

Height: 6'2”

Weight: 216

He started playing hockey at 9, starting to skate later than his co-aged in “Silver Sharks”. He was then invited in CSKA, where he was tried as d-man because of his height and size. He's an admirer of Denis Kulyash and Nicklas Lidstrom, but they aren't his idols, he wants to looks like himself only. He's always ready watching video of any kind of sport but chess and thinks that hockey is a sport for men, but doesn't hold any grudge against women hockey. His style of play is something similar to “get the puck off the opposition and give it to the nearest team mate”. He wants to become a successful player and a good man. He methodically studied shoot-outs in the last four years and now he's pretty good in this hockey fundamental.

Evgeny Ivannikov

Team: SKA-1946 St. Petesburg

Age: 18

Role: Goalkeeper

Height: 5'11”

Weight: 160

The son of the famous Soviet goalie Valeri Ivannikov first hit the ice on skates when he was only three and he wanted to become a netminder against his father's wishes. He spent most of his childhood with in-line skates and a stick, his first idol was his dad and now he sympathizes for Semen Varlamov, Evgeny Nabokov and Martin Brodeur. Before of his first chance in hockey he played football and basketball. Despite his famous name he wants to reach success by himself only and in order to get that one needs to individually work. He never played for the national team but he is ready to work hard to earn a call.

Ilya Bozhdaev

Team: SKA-1946 St. Petersburg

Age: 19

Role: Defenseman

Height: 6'2”

Weight: 190

He started playing hockey at 6 in Ufa, then he moved to St. Petersburg at 18. He is respectful towards the opponents, but plays very physically. Among the popular players he likes Darius Kasparaitis. He likes to watch many kind of sports on TV: football, basketball, boxing, MMA. His favorite basketball players are Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant. He likes a lot St. Petersburg, loves walking along the Nevsky Prospekt, the parks or simply watching at the bridges by night. He likes all sort of music, but more than everything he likes rock. His life dream is to become a good man and to help his parents; he'll try hard to learn from the best ones with the aim to overcome them.

Ildar Telyakov

Team: SKA-1946 St. Petersburg

Age: 18

Role: Defenseman

Height: 6'10”

Weight: 216

A graduate of St. Petersburg hockey school, his first trainer has been Valeri Tsalpanov. He has been brought to hockey by his parents when he was seven, before he was a tennis player and a swimmer. Once he gave a demonstration of hockey skills during a training with basketball players. Since then he never tried any kind of sport but hockey. He's a classic defenseman: he rarely joins the rush, because of his huge size he has some coordination problem. His idol is Zdeno Chara, he likes Sergei Zubov and Alexei Petrov's style and from the childhood his most uncomfortable opponents are Almaz from Cherepovets. He likes listening to jazz music and going to the cinema, where his favorite movies are war and horror ones. He likes theater too. His favorite celebrations are the New Year's day and his birthday.

Airat Ziazov

Team: Reaktor Nizhnekamsk

Age: 18

Role: Forward

Height: 5'10”

Weight: 215

He's a graduate of Nizhnekamsk hockey school and the author of the first hat trick by a Reaktor player in the MHL. His astrological sign is Aquarius, curiously enough the same as another one who had big success with reactors, the fisic Lev Landau. He's a follower of the principle: “don't have any idol” as he thinks that any man should remain himself. He plays for the fans, when there is a big crowd on the stands the emotions grew bigger. He gives credit to his team mates for his achievements and also thinks that the result of his team are more important than any individual statistic. He thinks Bars Kazan as the most dangerous opponents and regarding the MHL he said that the league should work over its attendance.

Stanislav Bocharov 

Team: Bars Kazan

Age: 18

Role: Forward

Height: 5'11”

Weight: 190

His parents – hockey fans – brought him to the hockey school when he was just five and he started playing in Khabarovsk with guys one year older than him and he had some trainings run by Alexander Mogilny. He played until he was 15 in the Amur youth system, then he moved to Kazan, and he played not only for Ak Bars, but also for Neftyanik Almetievsk. He tries hard creating his own style, but he likes Ilya Kovalchuk. He constantly plays for the junior national teams, was born on the same day as Pavel Datsyuk. He likes to do tricks while playing the puck and sometimes this hasn’t the best impact over the quality of its control. He is a very good shoot out taker and has in his achievements a hat-trick scored with the U18 national team. He tries to work on his speed and his shot’s accuracy. He tries hard to be a leader, has changed 15 sticks last season, likes the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”, cooks at home and reads Paulo Coelho.

Sergei Tereschenko

Team: Stalnye Lisy Magnitogorsk

Age: 17

Role: Defenseman

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 167

A graduate of the Magnitogorsk hockey school, he has been introduced to hockey by his parents when he was five. At first he had hard times, but he never wanted to play any other kind of sport. He was the first player in the MHL history to score eight points in one week, in three matches. He always liked played as defenseman, but he plays a more offensive style like, for examples, Mike Green of the Washington Capitals. He makes everything possible not to miss a single home match of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, always follows his former team mates, is used to long transfers and likes the concept of the individual prizes in hockey. He thinks about the MHL’s Challenge Cup not like a show, but like a high-level match.

Dmitri Voloshin

Team: Stalnye Lisy

Age: 20

Role: Goalkeeper

Height: 5’10”

Weight: 175

He’s a graduated of the Magnitogorsk hockey school who regularly gets the call into the national team even if he didn’t play in the last WC as his spot has been taken by Alexander Pechursky and Vadim Zhelobnyuk. In the different age categories he faced such players like Evgeny Grachev, Nikita Filatov, Evgeny Dadonov and Pavel Kulikov and like others MHL players of the caliber of Vitaly Karamnov, Vasily Tokranov and Egor Averin he remained in Russia as he ended up undrafted. He got some experience playing in a number of international tournaments where he played also against North American teams. He has won the first “Spartakiade”. 

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