Seven Months Of Existence

It was a mere seven months ago that I had written an article about the Russian Professional Women's Hockey League, better known as the harder-to-pronounce Zhenskaya Hockey League, expanding into Yaroslavl as the Ice Wings took flight. Who would have imagined that seven months later, I'd be talking about the team's demise as they announced via social media today that, "due to financial difficulties", they would be unable to compete for the rest of the season. That's a pretty hard pill to swallow when you consider that 20 women basically have had their seasons ended prematurely through no fault of their own, but the Ice Wings are done. Whether they return will be a matter of money, it seems.

Let's be clear in saying that the Ice Wings weren't very good. They were 1-20-0-1 in the 22 games they played this season while being outscored 145-20. September 25's historical inaugural game didn't go well as MSMO 7.62 laid a 7-1 beating on the Ice Wings, but Maria Lobour scored the team's first-ever goal at 7:54 of the second period when she beat Anna Alpatova off a feed from Elizabeth Dyundina.

September 26 saw the Ice Wings fall in overtime by a 4-3 score to MSMO 7.62 as they collected the first point in their history in just their second game. Alexandra Safonova was in the Ice Wings' net for this game as she made 55 stops in the overtime loss to help Yaroslavl pick up that historic first point.

There would be eight-straight losses following that overtime loss before the Ice Wings ran into the other expansion team as the White Bears from Chelyabinsk were their opponents on October 24. Goals from Maria Lobour at 5:07 of the second period and Olga Semenets at 16:06 of the third period was more than enough offence for goaltender Daria Lavrukhina as she stopped all thirty shots she faced for Yaroslavl's first shutout as they earned their first ZhHL win with the 2-0 victory over the White Bears! After finally knocking that gorilla off their backs, it would about to get better, right?

I'm not sure the expression "the wheels came off" is accurate because it seems like the Ice Wings imploded, exploded, spontaneously combusted, and were vaporized all at the same time. Eight losses were recorded with the smallest margin of defeat being five goals. Four of the losses were by ten goals or more. Three of the losses saw the Ice Wings give up 15-or-more goals. They were shutout in five-straight games, and didn't score more than one goal in any of the eight losses. The total damage from these eight games were a combined score of 92-3. That's not a typo!

If we're being honest with ourselves, the Ice Wings were not making the playoffs in any fashion as the top-eight teams from the ten-team league qualify for the playoffs. What might hurt more than anything, though, was that they were just seven points out of a playoff spot when they informed the league they could not continue. Was there a chance? Of course, although we'll never know now.

At the time they withdrew, Maria Lobour was the leading scoring with four goals and seven assists. The leading goal scorer, though, was Stanislava Sidorenko who left the team and had her contract terminated back on November 2, 2021 when she had six goals and ten points for the team to lead the Ice Wings at that time. Sidorenko is now playing with her hometown White Bears as she was born in Chelyabinsk, signing with the club on November 4.

Alexandra Gorshkova was tied for the lead in defender scoring with two assists, but it's her golf championship plus/minus that gets noticed quickly as she led the clubhouse with a -55! Marina Lzaraeva also had two assists as a defender, but her -14 is nowhere near as impressive. Just ten players had points for the Ice Wings before they locked the doors on the women.

Daria Lavrukhina was the best netminder for the Ice Wings as the hometown Yaroslavl native was 1-6-0 on the season with a 6.73 GAA and an .848 save percentage. Alexandra Safonova was 0-12-1 in her time with the Ice Wings on the strength of a 7.90 GAA and an .866 save percentage. If you're asking where the other two losses went, they were forfeits based upon rescheduled games that will no longer be played, so the 20 games that these two netminders played are split between them.

That closes the book on the first, and perhaps only, season of existence for the Yaroslavl Ice Wings. It certainly didn't end the way anyone wanted, but there have been a lot of teams whose finances have dried up with no fans either choosing not to watch or being unable to attend. I don't know if either of those situations were applicable to the Ice Wings, but I do know the latter will certainly apply for the rest of the season with the team officially off the ice.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!