History

How it all began.

Very few people know that our team are one of the oldest teams in the country. The history of Yenisei was believed for a long time to have begun in 1949. We should notice, however, that at some moment of the time the respected historians of Russian hockey committed an error. In the 1940-s (to be exact, in 1946) a team Tractor was founded to represent Krasnoyarsk Combine factory at the Soviet Union arena. And they did their job very well - they became the finalists of the Cups of RSFSR and the USSR, won "bronze" at the National championship. As far as Yenisei is concerned, this would-be glorified team have been keeping their records since autumn 1934, the date when the team called “Stroitel Vostoka” (Builder of the East) was created at the Krasmashvagonstroi factory. The young Krasmashvagonstroi team (in different years called Dzerdzhinets, Avangard, Metallist) were shadowed by other teams. Before World war II Dynamo and then Tractor were leading teams in the city. And only in the early 60s Yenisei literally came out from the underground.

1960-1969

Not only Tractor and Yenisei represented Krasnoyarsk in the super league of national hockey. Among the best national teams occasionally flashed Locomotive and Trud. One thing to remember: the ones and the same players played for those teams. And there was a simple explanation to it - even in the Soviet times the maintenance of a super league team was very expensive business. That is why the players kept wandering from one factory to another until they finally settled down at the Krasmashvagonstroi factory.

The first match of Yenisei in the super league of the championship of the USSR was a failure. Their first match with Dynamo, Moscow, on the All-Union arena the newly born team held on December 5th, 1960, in Krasnoyarsk and lost with the score 0:1. In total in December, 1960 Yenisei played 8 games but won only once - beat Locomotive, Irkutsk, with the score 4:0 on December, 1960. After that the team in the full composition settled down again at the Combine factory and finished the USSR championship as Torpedo. However, there was not a single chance to compensate the failure at the very start, so Yenisei found themselves in the first league.

Yenisei had to solve a problem of returning into the elite division. That has been a final name of the team since the seasons of 1961-1962. But returning into the super league didn't do any good, and Yenisei were sent to the second division of national hockey again for a year to train. But since his return in 1965 Yenisei have been in the super league and have not left it no more.

During their first playing season after returning (1965-66) Yenisei proved to be very strong " middle peasant." Such players as goalkeeper Jury Lyapin, defenders Vladimir Zhilionis and Vladimir Vishnevsky, halfbacks Jury Nepomnjushchy and Valery Pozdnyakov, forwards Vladimir Artyomov and Anatoly Botchkarev played for the team.

Due to such potent selection of players Yenisei fixed themselves firmly in the middle of the tournament table, gaining places from 5th to 9th.

In February of 1968 a significant event took place: For the first time a player from Yenisei was taken to the national team of the USSR. It was halfback Jury Nepomnyushchy. During the traditional Scandinavian tour he held two matches with the national team of Sweden.

1970-1979

The beginning of the 1970s was not an easy time for Krasnoyarsk team. "The old guard" grew old and during the three subsequent seasons (1972-1974) Yenisei were about to be pushed into the first league. Luckily, on February 24, 1974, a significant event, importance of which the hockey public of Krasnoyarsk became aware of much later, occurred. That day very young Sergey Lomanov, Andrey Pashkin and Vitaly Savluk for the first time in their lives took part in seemingly unimportant match with Ural Trubnik in the Yenisei stadium. Those were the first from a wide range of professionals who shortly would bring about unprecedented success to Yenisei. But that was to happen a bit later. Meanwhile other representatives of the future "gold” composition were joining the team: Vitaly Anufrienko, Jury Pershin, Victor Shakalin, Jury Lahonin, Michael Leschinsky among them. In the end of the 70s these guys were supported by more skilled Jury Ivanov, Victor Lomanov and Vladimir Kumanev and they already " had ripened" for greater victories. The quickly revitalized team started to show an attacking game, but they yet lacked stability, especially while playing on the opponents' fields.

On March 11th, 1978, the overcrowded Yenisei stadium became a witness of how recent young men crushed "Kuzbas", Kemerovo, with the score 20:5 and won bronze medals in the final match of the USSR championship.

It was to be expected that in the season of 1979 Yenisei would continue their triumphal rising to the top of national hockey, but...at that time Sergei Lomanov and Jury Pershin were to represent Krasnoyarsk at the next World Championship in Sweden. While they were training for the world forum and taking part in it, Yenisei had to play at the national championship without their leaders. As a result the team performed extremely unsuccessfully on the opponents' fields and gained the 4th place.

There was another noteworthy change. In the end of the 1970s a real hockey boom began

in Krasnoyarsk. In order to get to the match of their favorite team the supporters used to be on duty near the ticket offices all nights long. Moreover, the city plants and factories sent their "messengers" to the stadium to occupy seats in advance for all working brigades. The stadium itself was a terrific sight during matches : not only the tribunes were packed with people, the spectators were sitting in the snowdrifts around the field, the most desperate were watching the hockey sitting at the tops of nearby five-story blocks of flats.

1980-1989

What the fans had been dreaming about over many years at last came true on Saturday, March 8th, 1980. That day Yenisei beat Vympel, Kaliningrad, with the score 4:2 and for the first time have won a title of the strongest team of the country. That was the beginning of unprecedented series of victories in the history of national hockey - 10 times in succession our team rose at the top step of a podium. And what is especially important, the national successes were confirmed in numerous international tournaments. Within ten years Yenisei won the Cup of the European Champions six times, the World Cup twice and the Super Cup of Europe...

Above we only mentioned the tournaments in which the strongest clubs of the world were opponents of our team. However, Yenisei reached the biggest success in a period from 1986 to 1989 when they won the Cup of the European Champions four times in succession.

And it looks quite natural that during this decade the players of Yenisei composed the basis of the national team of the USSR. Victor Shakalin, Vitaly Anufrienko and Sergei Lomanov - each of them held 15 to 17 seasons in the national team. Besides, almost all players of Krasnoyarsk team were being invited to play for the national team.

1990-1999

During this decade Yenisei made their way from the leaders of national hockey to outsiders and back. An important point bears mentioning. Not very sport-related reasons were to blame for an abrupt fall of the team. Just in the beginning of the 90s a standard of living in our country began to decrease dramatically, so the top national players started to leave for Scandinavian clubs. And Yenisei suffered great losses, too. From 1988 to 1993 Andrei Pashkin, Sergei Lomanov, Victor Shakalin, Vitaly Anufrienko, Jury Pershin, Andrei Sizov left for Sweden. Those losses were very painful for the club.

Thank to the former experience Yenisei won silver in 1990 and gold for 11th time in 1991. But after that an inevitable retreat followed. The season of 1992 was not a success and the team were the 5th. During the season of 1993 chief trainer of Yenisei Victor Lomanov went ahead and fundamentally rejuvenated the personnel of the team and literally the team from the most experienced ones were made into the youngest team in the super league. An average age of the players was 19-20 years. As a result of it Yenisei had to struggle to survive for the first time in their history and were the 17th - the worst result in their long-lived history. From 1993 to 1995 professional growing of " new wave"- Sergei Burlakov, Vyacheslav Morzovik, Alexei Shcheglov, Anatoly Suzdalev, Evgenie Shvetsov and Ivan Maksimov- was taking place.

In summer of 1995 one more important event occured in the life of the team: Sergei Lomanov, Vitaly Anufrienko and Jury Pershin returned home from Sweden. Lomanov switched quickly to trainer's work, but Anufrienko and Pershin generously shared secrets of skillfulness with their younger partners.

As a result Yenisei gradually but inevitably were gaining leading positions in national hockey.

Another important factor for increased skills was a construction of the field that had facilities for producing artificial ice in the Yenisei stadium. Thus, the team were able to have playing and practice seasons within seven months in a year on a big ice.

The results were as follows: in 1997, 1998 and 1999 Yenisei won the Cup of Russia. Besides, in the season of 1999 Yenisei became finalists in the hockey Championship of Russia in which in the stubborn fighting because of the two missed "additional" goals they lost to Vodnik, Arkhangelsk, with the score 5:3 and 1:3 (sum of two matches). However, this defeat did not upset anyone: the progress of the team was obvious and new great achievements were to come soon.

2000-2007

From 1990 to 2000 Yenisei were finalists in the hockey Championships of Russia four times. There they fought for the first place with Vodnik, Arkhangelsk. In 1999 and 2000 Vodnik kept winning. In the season of 2001 Yenisei played with Vodnik again in the final matches. In the first match which was held in Krasnoyarsk on March 1st, the score was 2:1 in favor of Yenisei, that was a minimal result, and soon after that the main events were transferred to Arkhangelsk Trud stadium. On March 4th, in Arkhangelsk, the spectators saw a terrific big game. Both teams were worth winning, the struggle was being held on each spot of the field. However, at that very moment, during the last minute of the match when the score was 3:1 in favor of Vodnik, the goalkeeper of Yenisei Andrei Balandin threw the ball far out, Ivan Maksimov seized it and scored the very much desired, really "gold" goal.

Yenisei lost with the score 2:3, but due to the "additional” goal scored on the opponents' field (the two year old event was repeated but back to front), they became champions of the country for the 12th time.

In November 2001 Yenisei were to endure one more test - participating in the Cup of the European Champions. The decision was made to hold it in Krasnoyarsk. Within the eight preceding years Russian teams did not manage to win this honorable trophy. Nevertheless, our team broke this tradition and defeated Westeros, Sweden, in the final match with the score 3:2.

It has been the last success of Krasnoyarsk team up until now – in the hockey Championship of Russia in 2002 Yenisei gained 4th place. In the summer of the same year the best players began to leave the team for different reasons. But in spite of the loss of six hockey players our players once again won silver medals in the Championship of Russia in the season of 2003 having lost to Vodnik with the score 2:1 and 5:8 (a sum of two matches)

In the summer of 2003 the situation worsened even more - Yenisei was left by eight more players and as the consequence of that the recession began. From 2004 to 2006 Yenisei kept gaining 8th, 7th and 9th places. However, in 2004 Krasnoyarsk team chanced to be in the final of the Cup of Russia in which they were beaten by SKA-Neftyanik, Khabarovsk, with the score 3:5, but it was the only success.