HC Druzhba ’78, comprised primarily of ’87-born players who will make up the Ukraine’s National Under-18 Team, are in the Boston area through Monday, and will be scrimmaging once daily.

Yesterday, the squad, which also includes one ’85, two ‘88s and five ‘89s, topped the Boston Harbor Wolves 3-1 in a morning game played at Nobles. This afternoon at 5:00 they’ll be facing off against the Belmont Hill varsity. Technically a scrimmage, the game will be played with referees and will consist of three 15-minute stop-time periods.

Here’s the schedule:

Thurs Jan. 6 – Belmont Hill (@ Belmont Hill) 5:00 pm

Fri. Jan. 7 -- Junior Bruins Midget AAA (@ BU) 7:00 pm

Sat. Jan. 8 – Cap District Selects (@ Harvard) 1:30 pm

Sun. Jan. 9 – Arlington High School (@ BB&N) 5:15 pm

Mon. Jan. 10 -- St. Sebastian’s (at St. Seb’s) 12:45 pm  -- Note new start time!! 

We didn’t catch yesterday’s game, but we’re told that the two high-end players are 6’2” defenseman Pavel Kozhokin (wearing #10), 5’11” forward Egor Egorov (#16). Behind them, 6’0” F/D Aleksandr Mikolenko (#12) and 6’2” forward Maksim Podkosov are also strong players. 6’4” defenseman Daniil Gurev did not play yesterday, but is said to be very good, as well. 

Those are just the best ’87 born players. There is also a batch of younger players.

Then there are the two girls: 5’9”, 136 lb. forward Elizaveta Ryabkina (#17) and 5’9”, 143 lb. ’89 forward Viktoria Mikolenko (#14). As far as we know, both will be playing today. Ryabkina has scored a pair of goals on the North American tour, but Mikolenko, who’s just 15, has yet to register a point in seven games – so she’s due.

The man behind the tour is Gene Kinasewich, a ’64 Harvard grad out of Edmonton, Alberta who starred on some of the powerful Cooney Weiland-coached Harvard teams of the early ‘60s, where he was teammates with long-time Yale coach Tim Taylor, not to mention Godfrey Wood, Ike Ikauniks,  Dave Johnston, and others. Kinasewich, one of 14 children of Ukranian immigrants who settled in Alberta, is traveling with the team. He has been battling cancer for the last couple of years.

There is an excellent article about Kinasewich on the team’s web site, as well as information on coach Ivan Pravilov, an article about the girls, the team’s history, etc There’s some good reading there. We recommend it highly. There’s also basic stuff like roster, stats, etc. 

Here’s the link:

Druzhba '78 Under-18 North American Tour Web Site

Update 1/7/05:

Druzhba '78 topped Belmont Hill yesterday, 2-1. Today, ten of the players are going out to western Mass. to visit the Berkshire School, where the above-mentioned girl, Elizaveta Ryabkina, was offered a scholarship last year. Berkshire has a strong English as a Second Language program, as does Lawrence Academy, where some of the Druzhba players will also interview. As for Ryabkina, she could step in right now and contribute to any Div. I women's college hockey program in the country. This is a great opportunity for some of these kids -- the Ukraine, as you may know, is suffering from high unemploymment and poverty.

Please note the change of the starting time for Monday's game at St. Sebastian's. The new starting time is 12:45 pm.