A perennial power in Belarus, Neman Grodno have qualified for the Champions Hockey League by winning the 2015 IIHF Continental Cup. Now they have their sights set on a higher level of international club hockey.  

by Jon Rowson

The Champions Hockey League heads eastwards for the 2015–16 campaign, welcoming Belarusian side Neman Grodno. Located near the Polish and Lithuanian borders, Grodno is the up-and-coming hockey town in Belarus, blessed with a fantastic junior program and solid home-town support. The 2014–15 IIHF Continental Cup champions will be hoping to do their country proud when the puck drops in CHL action.

Solid foundations

The earliest known date of organised hockey in Grodno is 1930, where a number of organisation-based teams, such as factories, played locally against each other. Interrupted by the destruction caused by the Second World War, hockey was slow to return to the western Belarusian city. It would not be until 1980 that the club, then under the banner KSM Grodno, first entered the professional ranks, taking their place in the Belarusian second division. 

In the spring of 1983, KSM Grodno gained promotion to the highest level of competition in Belarus, quickly establishing themselves as one of the premier teams in the country, often finishing towards the top of the table. In 1986, the team was renamed to SHVSM Grodno, beginning the process by which Neman’s existence came about. Whilst also playing in the Belarusian league, many SHVSM Grodno players laced up the skates for SKIF SHVSM Minsk in the Soviet Second Division. At the end of the 1987–88 season, both SHVSM Grodno and SKIF SHVSM Minsk merged under the name Progress Grodno. After two seasons placed third and fourth in the Soviet Second Division, Progress Grodno were renamed Neman Grodno in 1991.

First taste of success

During the 1990s, Neman’s schedule was often split between the Belarusian Extraliga and an array of multi-national competitions. Neman impressed in their first season in the Russian Vysshaya Liga in 1992–93, finishing on top of the Western Conference before being undone at the hands of Sibir Novosibirsk in the quarter-finals. In that same year, after a shortened

Belarusian Extraliga season of just 12 games, Neman finished second behind Tivali Minsk.
1993–94 saw Neman focus solely on the Belarusian league, once more finishing second behind eventual champions Tivali, whilst a return to the Vysshaya Liga the season after saw Neman fail to live up to their previous success, finishing a disappointing 4th in the Western Conference. 

However, the club management kept faith in head coach Anatoli Varivonchik and were duly rewarded in 1995–96, when Neman claimed the inaugural Eastern European Hockey League title, defeating Juniors Riga and Polimr Novopolotsk in the Championship Round. Varivonchik has been Neman’s cornerstone throughout their 27-year history. He was first appointed as head coach in 1989, and stayed at the helm until 2004. During that time, he was also the head coach of the Belarusian national team between 1996 and 2001. Varivonchik is now currently the general manager of Neman, a role he has held since 2009.

The best in Belarus

Neman went from strength to strength following their victory in the EEHL. 1996–97 saw the team finish third in both the Belarusian Extraliga and the EEHL, but with a number of key players entering their prime, Neman flourished. Key figures such as Oleg Malashkevich, Alexander Pstyga and Sergei Golovinov, players who had been with the club since the breakup of the Soviet Union, were duly rewarded with their first Belarusian Extraliga Championship in 1997–98, defeating Polimir Novopolotsk in the final. 

The Russian born Malashkevich would be central to Neman’s early success, scoring a remarkable 441 points in 656 appearances for the club. In the eyes of many, Malashkevich is second only in Neman’s history to Vyacheslav Lisichkin. The 34-year old winger made his debut for the Neman senior club at the age of 17 in the 1998–99 season, the year in which Neman retained the Belarusian title and finished second in the EEHL, losing to Sokil Kyiv in the final. Lisichkin has never played for another club professionally, making over 800 appearances in a Neman jersey. It remains to be seen whether he can reach the 1,000 games milestone in the next couple of years.

The tide turns

Lisichkin would go on to win his second Extraliga title in 2000–01, as Neman once again demonstrated their supremacy by claiming their third championship in as many years. However, the summer of 2001 saw the first departure of Oleg Malashkevich, one of the talismanic figures in the Neman locker-room, and slowly but surely Neman struggled to make their mark in the domestic league.

Neman were still contenders, regularly finishing in the top half of the Extraliga table, but they failed to truly reach the heights of the late 1990s. The wheels truly fell off upon Anatoli Varivonchik’s departure as coach, as Russian Vladimir Shenko failed to get the same out of his players. 2004–05 saw Neman lose half of their games in the now-expanded Belarusian Extraliga calendar, finishing 10th and missing the playoffs for the first time in the club’s history. Five straight quarter-final losses would follow, with Neman finishing no higher than 7th in the Extraliga between 2003–04 and 2009–10. 

Reconstruction work

A major rebuild was needed. With the club failing to make an impact in the first decade of the 2000s, serious work was undertaken by the club to improve the club’s practice facilitites and most importantly, junior coaching. Neman’s management placed serious emphasis on nurturing and developing local talent, both for the benefit of Neman but also the Belarussian national team. The likes of defencemen Andrei Korshunov and Oleg Goroshko and forwards Pavel Boyarchuk, Sergei Malyavko and his brother Alexander are all natives of Grodno, proudly representing their hometown team. To this solid core, Neman added the likes of Alexander Medvedev and Alexei Krutikov, and by 2010, Neman looked like the team of old.

2010–11 and 2011–12 saw Neman lose respectively in the Belarusian Extraliga finals to Yunost’ Minsk and Metallurg Zhlobin. While the disappointment was tangible with two final defeats in as many years, these losses laid the foundations for what was to come. Major work was done by Neman’s management to secure the signings of Estonian forward Andrei Makrov, in addition to Jaroslav Kristek from the Czech Republic. Makrov was a revelation for Grodno, scoring 71 points in 51 games and being voted as the Belarusian Extraliga’s best forward. In addition to the free-scoring Makrov, Igor Brikun was a brick wall in net as Neman swept the regular season champions Metallurg Zhlobin 4–0 in the finals.

Makrov would depart for pastures new, but Neman managed to retain Jaroslav Kristek for the 2013–14 season in addition to securing the services of Ukrainian born forward Viktor Andrushchenko, who would replace Makrov’s production. Neman were a force to be reckoned with as they finished top of the table in the regular season, before breezing past Brest and Metallurg Zhlobin to face Yunost’ Minsk in the final. Once more, Brikun was solid in net and Neman took a 4–2 series victory to claim their second title in as many years, putting them truly at the top of Belarusian hockey.

Continental success

Neman’s title victory gave them a berth in the 2014–15 Continental Cup, the ideal preparation for their upcoming CHL campaign. Neman joined the competition in the third round, joining an incredibly close-fought Group E, where they advanced to the Super Final by virtue of a three-way tie break with Les Ducs D’Angers from France and the Belfast Giants from the EIHL. Grodno qualified as the second seed behind Angers and headed to Bremerhaven in January 2015 for the Super Final.

Neman, and in particular free-scoring defenceman Andrei Korshunov were in fine form, thrashing Angers and Bremerhaven 5–0 and 6–2 respectively to give them the title before the tournament’s third game-day. Korshunov was voted as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, having scored an outstanding 8 points in 3 games, three more than any other player.

With this experience of European club competition behind them, Neman Grodno look set to take on the best that the Champions Hockey League can offer. Drawn into Group I alongside Adler Mannheim and HC Vitkovice Ostrava, Neman have every chance to spring a surprise, not least as new head coach Milos Holan was a HC Vitkovice junior and played well in excess 100 games for the Ostrava club. Neman have been active in the transfer market so far, with a trio of new import forwards. Fellow Ostrava native Milan Mikulík, Slovak Michal Chovan and Canadian Benjamin Breault will wear the red and black of Neman for the upcoming Belarusian Extraliga and Champions Hockey League seasons. 

Team facts

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