- Avangard Omsk
-
Avangard Omsk Oblast
Авангард Омск Oбласть
Full name Avangard Omsk Oblast 1981-present
- Shinnik Omsk 1974-1981
- Khimik Omsk 1972-1974
- Kauchuk Omsk 1967-1972
- Aeroflot Omsk 1962-1967
- Spartak Omsk 1950-1962
Nickname(s) "Hawks" Founded 1950 Based In Omsk, Omsk Oblast Arena Omsk Arena
(Capacity: 10,318)League KHL 2008-present Division Chernyshev Conference Eastern Team Colors Head Coach 
Rostislav ČadaCaptain 
Alexei KalyuzhnyAffiliates Omskye Yastreby (MHL) Website www.hawk.ru Avangard Omsk (Russian: Авангард Омск, English: Vanguard) are a professional ice hockey team from Siberia based in the city of Omsk, Russia. They are members of the Chernyshev Division of the Kontinental Hockey League.
Contents
Franchise history
Overview
Avangard, which translates to "Vanguard" in English, was established in 1950. The logo features a stylised hawk. The club has changed names several times, with previous names including Spartak Omsk, Aeroflot Omsk, Kauchuk Omsk, Khimik Omsk, and Shinnik Omsk.
Avangard Omsk won the Russian Super League in 2004, which qualified them for the inaugural IIHF European Champions Cup. They would be the first winners of that competition, beating Kärpät Oulu from Finland.
The team is not owned by Russian businessman Roman Abramovich as it may be concerned. Russian oil company Gazprom-Neft partly finances the team, but the majority of its budget comes from province tax money.
Metallurg Magnitogorsk, HC Sibir, Salavat Yulaev Ufa, Ak Bars Kazan and, to a lesser extent, Vityaz Chekhov are considered to be Avangard's fiercest rivals in the KHL.
KHL History
2008-2009
This season is considered to be one of the worst in the franchise history with the club's reputation being tarnished both on and off ice. During the summer, Anatoly Bardin, the GM, was kept busy bringing 18 new players in, including former Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Jaromir Jagr, John Grahame and Stanislav Chistov.
After an unconvincing start, the head coach Sergey Gersonskiy was sacked just 6 games into the season. He would later start legal proceedings against the club to obtain compensation that he was allegedly entitled to under his contract. After a number of hearings and appeals, Gersonskiy was awarded 1 million rubles, only a small proportion of what he originally claimed.[1] Wayne Fleming was promptly appointed as the head coach.
On 13 October 2008, young Avangard Omsk forward Alexei Cherepanov died after collapsing on the bench during a game against Vityaz Chekhov. He played a shift with teammate Jaromír Jágr, and the two were talking on the bench shortly after they left the ice, when he suddenly collapsed.[2] After being attended to on the bench, he was carried to the dressing room where he was revived for several brief moments before finally being rushed to an intensive care unit,[3] but it was too late. The ambulance that is normally at all games had already departed and had to be called back; doctors arrived on the scene a full 12 minutes after Cherepanov collapsed, and the battery on the defibrillator used to attempt to shock Cherepanov's heart back to life was drained.[4] It took approximately 20 minutes to get him to a hospital.[5][6] While in the care of Chekhov doctors, he was again resuscitated briefly on two occasions, before ultimately passing.
On 29 December 2008, Russian investigators revealed that he suffered from myocarditis, a condition where not enough blood gets to the heart, and that he should not have been playing professional hockey. The federal Investigative Committee also announced that a chemical analysis of Cherepanov's blood and urine samples allowed experts to conclude "that for several months Alexei Cherepanov engaged in doping".[4] Official sources have stated the banned substance taken was nikethamide, a stimulant, and that it had been taken 3 hours prior to the game in which he passed.[7]
Club director Mikhail Denisov has since been fired[4], whereas the league Disciplinary Committee has since removed Omsk's doctors from that role with the club, and has requested the suspension of GM Anatoly Bardin and team president Konstantin Potapov until the investigation being conducted by the Russian Federal Prosecutor's Office was concluded. Anatoly Bardin was eventually reinstated as the club's GM.
Meanwhile, Avangard's poor performance on the ice continued. This resulted in a bizarre incident when Anatoly Bardin asked Wayne Fleming to leave the bench during the second intermission of a home game against Vityaz Chekhov.[8] In just under a month the head coach was relieved of his duties, and inexperienced Igor Nikitin was appointed as his replacement.[9] Having finished the regular season on the 16th place, Avangard only just managed to get into the playoffs. However, they surprised everyone by knocking the regular season champions Salavat Yulaev Ufa out of the competition by winning 3 games to 1. Moreover, they were only 15 seconds away from defeating Ak Bars Kazan, the future champion of 2008-2009 season, in the second round but failed to hold on to their one-goal lead and went on to concede an overtime goal in the deciding match at TatNeft Arena.
2009-2010
The club made a few solid roster additions by signing Karri Rämö with Lasse Kukkonen in the summer and Anton Babchuk with Denis Kulyash during the season. However, a lack of quality players up front soon became apparent as Igor Nikitin, the head coach, was struggling to find players matching Jágr's ability to play in the first line, and the team found it difficult to achieve the results that the fans expected.
On 9 January 2010, a massive brawl broke out in a game against Vityaz Chekhov. The conflict started during pre-game warm-ups when Darcy Verot intentionally shot a puck at Lasse Kukkonen forcing Alexander Svitov to stand up for his team-mate. Soon after the game started Brandon Sugden challenged Svitov to another fight, which then involved all other 8 skaters on the ice. A number of other fights ensued resulting in a bench- and penalty-box clearing. The officials had to suspend the game just after 3 minutes 39 seconds in the first period as there were only four players left to play the game.[10] A world record total of 840 penalty minutes were incurred during the game. The KHL imposed heavy fines on both teams, some players and the head coaches as well as disqualifying 6 Vityaz's players and Avangard's Dmitry Vlasenkov, who was first to leave the bench during a fight. The game was counted as a 5-0 defeat for both teams with no points being awarded.[11]
The brawl appeared to give the team a morale boost as they went on to win the next six games. However, mediocrity soon returned, and Igor Nikitin was replaced by Raimo Summanen just hours before the playoffs started.[12] The new head coach failed to deliver as the team suffered three straight defeats at the hands of Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk and was eliminated at the first hurdle.
Honors
Champions
- Russian Super League Championship (1): 2004
- IIHF European Champions Cup (1): 2005
Players
Current roster
Updated November 20, 2011.[13][14]
Honored members
- 7 Alexei Cherepanov, RW, 2006–08, number retired October 13, 2008[15]
NHL alumni
Alexander Svitov (1999–2002, 2007–10)- Alexander Perezhogin (2000–03, 2010–present)
- Nikita Nikitin (2004–10)
- Jaromir Jagr (2008–11)
Karri Rämö (2009–present)
All-time KHL scoring leaders
'Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes, PPG = Powerplay Goals, SHG = Shorthanded Goals, GWG = Game Winning Goals'
Player[16] GP G A Pts PIM +/- PPG SHG GWG Jaromír Jágr155 66 80 146 160 24 24 0 12 Anton Kuryanov139 44 60 104 56 37 17 1 12 Alexander Popov153 29 70 99 60 32 3 3 5 Dmitry Pestunov104 12 52 64 88 -3 2 0 1 Roman Cervenka51 31 30 61 56 15 13 0 7 Jakub Klepiš111 24 29 53 101 -9 10 0 4 Igor Volkov110 20 22 42 80 2 4 1 2 Alexander Svitov76 15 24 39 181 20 1 1 2 Dmitri Vlasenkov120 15 23 38 91 7 6 2 1 Alexander Perezhogin51 20 17 37 26 14 8 0 6 References
- ^ "Суд обязал «Авангард» выплатить Герсонскому около миллиона рублей" (in Russian). Sports.ru. 2009-06-11. http://www.sports.ru/hockey/12546425.html.
- ^ "Investigator: Hockey player had heart problems". Associated Press. 2008-10-14. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hpi4BZue5cXwtxn0tzsKICf5AtcwD93QFTDG0. Retrieved 2008-10-15.
- ^ "Черепанов потерял сознание во время матча с «Витязем»" (in Russian). Sports.ru. 2008-10-13. http://www.sports.ru/hockey/5945374.html.
- ^ a b c "Russian investigators say Cherepanov was 'doping'". The Sports Network. 2008-12-29. http://www.tsn.ca/story/?id=261215.
- ^ "Ranger Prospect Cherepanov Dies During KHL Game". The Sports Network. 2008-10-13. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=252547&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_nhl.
- ^ "Prospect Cherepanov Passes Away at 19". newyorkrangers.com. 2008-10-13. http://rangers.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=386385.
- ^ "Заявление Континентальной хоккейной лиги по итогам расследования обстоятельств смерти хоккеиста Алексея Черепанова". KHL.ru. 2008-12-30. http://www.khl.ru/news/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=10149.
- ^ "ESPN: Флеминг сохранит пост главного тренера «Авангарда»" (in Russian). Sports.ru. 2009-01-11. http://www.sports.ru/hockey/6595487.html.
- ^ "Флеминг отправлен в отставку с поста главного тренера «Авангарда»" (in Russian). Sports.ru. 2009-01-30. http://www.sports.ru/hockey/6803665.html.
- ^ "KHL hands out fines, suspensions for brawl". Yahoo! Sports. 2010-01-10. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/KHL-hands-out-fines-suspensions-for-brawl-Jagr?urn=nhl-212683.
- ^ "Both teams lose". KHL. 2010-01-10. http://en.khl.ru/news/2010/1/10/23771.html.
- ^ "Avangard in retreat". KHL. 2010-03-12. http://en.khl.ru/news/2010/3/12/23815.html.
- ^ "Avangard Team Roster" (in Russian). www.hawk.ru. http://www.hawk.ru/team.php?id_tip=110. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ "Avangard Omsk Region team roster". www.khl.ru. http://en.khl.ru/clubs/avangard. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
- ^ "Avangard Omsk plays first game without Cherepanov". The Sports Network. 2008-10-20. http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=253247&lid=sublink08&lpos=headlines_main.
- ^ Avangard Omsk KHL Scoring Leaders | QuantHockey.com Retrieved March 26, 2011.
External links
- Avangard Omsk official website (in Russian)
- NHL.com article on Omsk
Kontinental Hockey League Western Conference Eastern Conference Bobrov Division Lev PopradTarasov Division Kharlamov Division Yugra Khanty-MansiyskChernyshev Division Avangard OmskTopicsSeasons2008–09 • 2009–10 • 2010–11 • 2011–12Junior drafts2009 • 2010 • 2011Games and CupsAll-Star Game • Gagarin Cup • KHL Conference Finals • Continental Cup • Lokomotiv Cup • Russian Championship • KHL vs NHLSee alsoTeam changes • Potential expansion • List of goal scoring champions • List of scoring champions • List of territorial draft picks • Rivalries in the KHLCategories:- Ice hockey teams in Russia
- Sport in Omsk
- HC Avangard Omsk
- Kontinental Hockey League teams
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