2011–12 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl season

The 2011–12 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl season was the franchise's 52nd season of play in professional ice hockey in Russia. It was supposed to be its fourth season in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The season was scheduled to start on September 8, 2011. However, on September 7, while traveling to their season opener, the team's plane crashed, killing 43 people, including 25 roster players, and 11 members of the team staff. Only Alexander Galimov survived the initial impact of the crash with severe injuries, but died on September 12. Another roster player, Maxim Zyuzyakin, did not travel with the team on the plane. As a consequence, the league cancelled the September 7 Opening Cup game between Salavat Yulaev and Atlant already in progress, postponing the opening of the KHL season until September 12.

The tragedy forced Lokomotiv Yaroslavl to cancel their participation in the 2011–12 KHL season.^[1] Instead, the club participated in the 2011–12 season of the Russian Major League (VHL), the second top ice hockey league in Russia after the KHL, starting in December 2011, and was eligible for the MHL playoffs. Also, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl's squad for the 2012–13 KHL season would automatically be qualified for the KHL playoffs that season, and the club could request allowance to use more than six non-Russian players in the KHL squad.^[2][3]

Off-season

Lokomotiv lost in the 2011 KHL Western Conference Finals 4–2 to Atlant. Following this playoff disappointment, eleven players (most notably former NHLers Daniel Tjärnqvist and Alexander Korolyuk) left the team, and nine players were added to the roster for the upcoming 2011–12 KHL season. The players set to make their debut with the team notably included former NHLers Ruslan Salei and Kārlis Skrastiņš. Also set to make their coaching debuts were former NHLers Brad McCrimmon and Igor Korolev.

Pre-season

The team played nine pre-season games, finishing with a 7–2 record, and won their second straight Latvian Railways Cup (August 23–27), a pre-season KHL tournament. On September 3, the players played their final game, at home against Torpedo, winning 5–2. Alexander Galimov, the sole team survivor of the initial impact, scored the last goal of that game, sealing the win for Lokomotiv with an empty net goal.

2011 pre-season game log: 7–2–0
#	Date	Visitor	Score	Home	OT/SO	Decision	Reference
1	August 10 (in Visp, Switzerland)	Lokomotiv	7 – 2	EHC Visp		Liv	[4]
2	August 12 (in Leukerbad, Switzerland)	Lokomotiv	3 – 4	SC Bern		Liv	[5]
3	August 13 (in Leukerbad, Switzerland)	Lokomotiv	5 – 1	HC Ambrì-Piotta		Vyukhin	[6]
4	August 23 (in Riga, Latvia)	Lokomotiv	2 – 3	Neftekhimik	SO	Vyukhin	[7]
5	August 24 (in Riga, Latvia)	Lokomotiv	1 – 0	Atlant		Liv	[8]
6	August 26 (in Riga, Latvia)	Lokomotiv	3 – 0	Dinamo Minsk		Liv	[9]
7	August 27 (in Riga, Latvia)	Lokomotiv	3 – 0	Neftekhimik		Liv	[10]
8	September 1	Severstal	3 – 5	Lokomotiv		Vyukhin	[11]
9	September 3	Torpedo	2 – 5	Lokomotiv		Liv	[12]

Crash

All players and most of the team staff were killed on 7 September 2011 when the Yak-Service Yak-42 that was chartered by the team crashed on takeoff from Tunoshna Airport in Yaroslavl, into the Volga River. Alexander Galimov survived the crash, but later died five days later of his injuries.^[13][14][15] Goalie coach Jorma Valtonen and forward Maxim Zyuzyakin were not on the flight.

Rebuilding the team

It was announced by KHL president Alexander Medvedev that a disaster draft would be conducted to assemble a new team for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Every other team in the league would select up to three players for the pool of 40–45 players for Lokomotiv to select in the disaster draft, which selected up to 14 players, as five players were promoted from Lokomotiv's youth team, and forward Maxim Zyuzyakin, who did not travel with the team, formed the core of the roster before the start of the disaster draft.^[16] The drafted players will continue to receive salaries from their respective teams.^[17] Lokomotiv's former coach Petr Vorobiev was hired as the new head coach. On September 10, at the team's public memorial service, team president Yuri Yakovlev announced that Lokomotiv would not participate in the 2011–12 KHL season.^[1]

Instead, the club participated in the 2011–12 season of the Russian Major League (VHL), the second top ice hockey league in Russia after the KHL. In October 2011, the team announced that its first game in the VHL would take place on 12 December 2011 at home ice. Players between 17 and 22 years old under contract to KHL and VHL teams were made available for Lokomotiv to build a roster. The team will play 22 games in the VHL, playing each team once. Its participation in the playoffs will be dependent on its winning percentage compared to other teams at the end of the season.^[18]

Schedule and results

Regular season

2011–12 game log: 13–6–3 (home: 9–1–2; road: 4–5–1)
December: 3–2–0 (home: 2–1–0; road: 1–1–0) Game December Opponent Score Record 1 12 Neftyanik Almetyevsk 5–1 1–0–0 2 14 Ariada-Akpars Volzhsk 2–0 2–0–0 3 20 @ Molot-Prikamye Perm 2–3 OT 2–0–1 4 22 @ Izhstal Izhevsk 4–1 3–0–1 5 28 HC Donbass 3–4 OT 3–0–2
January: 4–3–1 (home: 3–0–1; road: 1–3–0) Game January Opponent Score Record 6 6 Titan Klin 4–2 4–0–2 7 10 @ Rubin Tyumen 2–4 4–1–2 8 12 @ Zauralie Kurgan 1–3 4–2–2 9 14 @ Mechel Chelyabinsk 3–4 4–3–2 10 16 @ Yuzhny Ural Orsk 3–2 5–3–2 11 25 Lada Togliatti 3–1 6–3–2 12 27 Kristall Saratov 4–0 7–3–2 13 29 Dizel Penza 3–4 SO 7–3–3
February: 6–3–0 (home: 4–0–0; road: 2–3–0) Game February Opponent Score Record 14 3 HC Ryazan 4–0 8–3–3 15 5 Dynamo Tver 6–3 9–3–3 16 12 @ Kazzinc-Torpedo 4–1 10–3–3 17 14 @ Ermak Angarsk 2–4 10–4–3 18 17 @ Sokol Krasnoyarsk 3–2 11–4–3 19 22 HC VMF St. Petersburg 3–2 12–4–3 20 24 HC Sarov 4–0 13–4–3 21 27 @ Sputnik Nizhny Tagil 1–2 13–5–3 22 29 @ Toros Neftekamsk 2–4 13–6–3

Playoffs

2012 VHL playoffs: 5–5
Quarterfinals: 3–2 Game March Opponent Score Record 1 6 HC VMF 0–2 0–1 2 7 HC VMF 4–1 1–1 3 10 @ HC VMF 4–3 2–1 4 11 @ HC VMF 2–3 (OT) 2–2 5 14 HC VMF 2–1 3–2
Semifinals: 2–3 Game March Opponent Score Record 1 18 @ Dizel Penza 3–2 (OT) 1–0 2 19 @ Dizel Penza 2–1 (OT) 1–1 3 22 Dizel Penza 2–0 2–1 4 23 Dizel Penza 1–2 2–2 5 26 @ Dizel Penza 1–3 2–3

Team at the time of crash

Remembered September 7, 2011.^[19]

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
57		Anikeyenko, VitalyVitaly Anikeyenko	D	R	24	2005	Kiev, Ukrainian SSR
39		Balandin, MikhailMikhail Balandin	D	L	31	2011	Lipetsk, Russian SFSR
21		Churilov, GennadyGennady Churilov	C	L	24	2005	Magnitogorsk, Russian SFSR
38		Demitra, PavolPavol Demitra	C	L	36	2010	Dubnica nad Váhom, Czechoslovakia
20		Dietrich, RobertRobert Dietrich	D	L	25	2011	Ordzhonikidze, Ukrainian SSR
11		Galimov, AlexanderAlexander Galimov	RW	L	26	2004	Yaroslavl, Russian SFSR
74		Kalimulin, MaratMarat Kalimulin	D	R	23	2010	Togliatti, Russian SFSR
28		Kalyanin, AlexanderAlexander Kalyanin	RW	L	23	2008	Chelyabinsk, Russian SFSR
83		Kiryukhin, AndreiAndrei Kiryukhin	RW	L	24	2005	Yaroslavl, Russian SFSR
23		Klyukin, NikitaNikita Klyukin	C	L	21	2005	Rybinsk, Russian SFSR
1		Liv, StefanStefan Liv	G	L	30	2011	Gdynia, Poland
15		Marek, JanJan Marek	C	R	31	2011	Jindřichův Hradec, Czechoslovakia
32		Ostapchuk, SergeiSergei Ostapchuk	LW	R	21	2007	Novopolotsk, Belorussian SSR
4		Rachůnek, KarelKarel Rachůnek (C)	D	R	32	2010	Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia
24		Salei, RuslanRuslan Salei	D	L	36	2011	Minsk, Belorussian SSR
52		Shuvalov, MaximMaxim Shuvalov	D	L	18	2010	Rybinsk, Russia
37		Skrastiņš, KārlisKārlis Skrastiņš	D	R	37	2011	Riga, Latvia
69		Snurnitsyn, PavelPavel Snurnitsyn	F	L	19	2009	Yaroslavl, Russia
13		Sobchenko, DaniilDaniil Sobchenko	C	L	20	2007	Kiev, Ukrainian SSR
17		Tkachenko, IvanIvan Tkachenko (A)	LW	L	31	2001	Yaroslavl, Russian SFSR
3		Trakhanov, PavelPavel Trakhanov	D	L	33	2011	Moscow, Russian SFSR
81		Urychev, YuriYuri Urychev	D	R	20	2009	Yaroslavl, Russian SFSR
63		Vasicek, JosefJosef Vasicek (A)	C	L	30	2008	Havlíčkův Brod, Czechoslovakia
18		Vasyunov, AlexanderAlexander Vasyunov	LW	R	23	2011	Yaroslavl, Russian SFSR
35		Vyukhin, AlexanderAlexander Vyukhin	G	L	38	2010	Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR
72		Yarchuk, ArtemArtem Yarchuk	LW	L	21	2010	Yaroslavl, Russian SFSR
61		Zyuzyakin*, MaximMaxim Zyuzyakin*	F	R	20	2008	Novokuznetsk, Russian SFSR

Staff

Person	Age	Country	Title
Brad McCrimmon[20]	52		Head Coach
Alexander Karpovtsev[21]	41		Assistant Coach
Igor Korolev[21]	41	/	Assistant Coach
Jorma Valtonen*	64		Goalie Coach
Yuri Bakhvalov	-	-	physician/massage therapist[22]
Aleksandr Belyayev	-	-	Equipment manager/massage therapist
Nikolai Krivonosov	31		Fitness coach
Yevgeni Kunnov	-	-	Massage therapist
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov	-	-	Massage therapist
Vladimir Piskunov	52		Administrator
Yevgeni Sidorov	-	-	Coach-analyst
Andrei Zimin	-	-	Team doctor

• Zyuzyakin and Valtonen were the only club members not aboard the plane.

References

1. Grigory Sysoey (2011-09-10). "Russia's Lokomotiv ice hockey team to miss season after air disaster". RIA Novosti. Retrieved 2011-09-10.
2. На совещании в Кремле решили: "Локомотив" с декабря начнёт играть в ВХЛ. Sovetsky Sport (in Russian). 2011-09-12. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
3. "KHL's new Lokomotiv won’t play this season". Red Light. 2011-09-12. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
4. Хоккейный Клуб «Локомотив» (Ярославль)
5. Хоккейный Клуб «Локомотив» (Ярославль)
6. Хоккейный Клуб «Локомотив» (Ярославль)
7. Хоккейный Клуб «Локомотив» (Ярославль)
8. Хоккейный Клуб «Локомотив» (Ярославль)
9. Хоккейный Клуб «Локомотив» (Ярославль)
10. https://web.archive.org/20120212143938/http://hclokomotiv.ru:80/news/news/20110827194026.html. Archived from the original on February 12, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2011. Missing or empty |title= (help)
11. Хоккейный Клуб «Локомотив» (Ярославль)
12. Хоккейный Клуб «Локомотив» (Ярославль)
13. "Top KHL squad killed in passenger plane crash in Russia — RT". Rt.com. 2008-02-06. Retrieved 2011-09-08.
14. "Russian ice hockey team wiped out in plane crash". Yaroslavl: RIA Novosti. 7 September 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
15. СПИСОК экипажа и пассажиров, находившихся на борту воздушного судна Як-42 (Press release) (in Russian). Ministry of Emergency Situations. 7 September 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
16. Leonard, Peter (8 September 2011). "KHL delays games, but season will go on for Lokomotiv". nationalpost.com. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
17. KHL's bold plans to keep Lokomotiv running after tragedy - Puck Daddy - NHL Blog - Yahoo! Sports
18. "Lokomotiv to play first post-plane crash game in December". RT. 5 October 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
19. "Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Disaster Victims" (in Russian). hclokomotiv.ru. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
20. St. James, Helene (7 September 2011). "Ex-Red Wings assistant Brad McCrimmon killed in Russian crash". Detroit Free-Press. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
21. "Former Leafs Karpovtsev, Korolev Killed In Russian Plane Crash". NHL. 7 September 2011.
22. ftp://213.150.87.138/Arhiv/2010/N43/PDF/slj_2710_28.pdf

External links

• Official Website