Torpedo Hockey Club (HC Torpedo — Nizhny Novgorod) — an ice hockey team. It competes in the Kontinental Hockey League. Founded in 1946 in The City of Gorky. Team colours: blue, white, red.

In the top league in 1952—1953, 1954—1998, 1999—2002, 2003—2004, and from 2007 to the present. A total of 52 seasons (as of the start of the 2010—2011 season).

Arena — the Palace in Nizhny Novgorod (Gagarin Avenue), 5,500 seats.

Head coach — Vladimir Golubovich.

Captain — Sergei Vyshedkevich.

The official supporters' association is "Torpedo Ultras".

Division — Tarasov Division.

A hot start

Ice hockey, or "Canadian hockey" as it was then called, began to be widely cultivated in the USSR in the post-war years. The main impetus for the mass spread of this sport was the decree of the All-Union Committee for Physical Culture and Sport on holding the country's ice hockey championship in the 1946-47 season. Among the pioneers who took up this game were the people of The City of Gorky. Hockey developed especially actively at GAZ.

In the winter of 1946, two representatives of the automobile plant — the volunteer coach Gennady Salakov and Ivan Shoman — visited Moscow, where they took part in a seminar devoted to the development of hockey and attended matches between the capital's team and the Czechs. On returning home they set about forming an automobile plant team.

Their call was answered by those who had played bandy and football for years: the GAZ fitter Mikhail Tsedilin, the tool production fitter Sergey Kuritsyn, the veteran players Leonid Kraynov and Alexey Pushkin, and also the fitters Alexander Yermolyev, Leonid Shilenkov, Stanislav Ryzhov, Valentin Shilov and the electrician Anatoly Degtyarev. The first training sessions were led by Gennady Salakov, who was soon assisted by Nikolay Dunaev.

Invaluable help in the training process came from the player Alexey Shchelokov, who had become acquainted with Canadian hockey in Harbin, where his family had previously lived. Incidentally, unlike the others, Shchelokov had some equipment for the game: a stick and pucks. The rest had to make everything with their own hands. For this they adapted football shin guards and cycling helmets. There were difficulties with pucks.

The first official ice hockey tournament in The City of Gorky took place at the beginning of 1947. The City Cup was played for at the "Dynamo" stadium. The automobile plant team won.

From the 1947—1948 season "Torpedo" has competed in the championships of the USSR and, later, of the Russian Federation.

The first appearance of the The City of Gorky team at the all-union level dates to the 1947/48 season. «Torpedo» then took part in the first USSR championship among second-group teams (the equivalent of today's Major League).

In their debut season the Gorky team finished fourth, behind «Dynamo» (Sverdlovsk), «Dzerzhinets» (Chelyabinsk) and «Dynamo» (Moscow Region), but ahead of «Dynamo» of Kuibyshev, «Lokomotiv» from Vologda and their Arkhangelsk namesakes. The following season the Torpedo players finished last, fifth, in their zone.

The first serious success came to the automobile plant team in the spring of 1954, when «Torpedo» finished second in the second-tier championship behind «Dynamo» of Novosibirsk and earned the right to play in the first group (the equivalent of today's Super League). The debut was not a success. Seven points and last, 10th place. But the team stayed in the first group thanks to the expansion of class «A» to 15 teams, which took in «Khimik» (Voskresensk) and «Spartak» of Moscow.

The win over CSKA

By the end of the fifties the team gradually began to become a serious opponent not only for mid-table sides and outsiders, but for the leaders of our hockey as well.

In the spring of 1960 the competition was held on a play-off system. The quarter-final matches took place in early spring. CSKA came to Gorky.

Frankly speaking, the hosts had practically no chance of winning. The CSKA players felt this too, and expected to beat the Gorky side without difficulty.

The great CSKA player Nikolai Sologubov said in a private conversation with the journalist Vladimir Dvortsov: «Torpedo» against CSKA is like going at a locomotive with a knife".

But the celebrated player had misjudged the strength of the young team — Gorky won 6:5, and during the game the hosts were even leading by a score indecent for CSKA — 6:3.

The next day the teams were to play the second match of the series, which was played to two wins. A sensation was in the making. But then the weather intervened. The ice became completely unfit for play because of above-freezing temperatures. The match was first postponed twice, and at eight in the evening cancelled altogether.

CSKA instantly left the stadium, and only afterwards was it announced to the packed stands that the game had been moved to «Sokolniki». The most aggressively minded fans began storming the rooms under the stands in the hope of finding the director and the cashiers, who, having sold all the tickets, had left. Disorder broke out, the CSKA dressing room — where some of the army men had left their belongings — was ransacked. And then a fire broke out at the stadium.

Real strength

The automobile plant team clearly demonstrated its real strength that very autumn, when «Torpedo» won the tournament for the prize of the newspaper «Sovetsky Sport», quite prestigious at the time, beating in the decisive match «Spartak» of Moscow, which had overcome CSKA in the semi-final. And in March 1961 came the first (and so far the last) major success — «Torpedo» won silver in the USSR championship. That was the first time one of the sets of medals went to a non-Moscow club. The names of that tournament's laureates are still remembered by every Nizhny Novgorod fan. Viktor Konovalenko, Valery Kormakov, Vyacheslav Zhidkov, Boris Nemchinov, Igor Chistovsky, Lev Khalaichev, Robert Sakharovsky.

The team was coached at the time by Dmitry Boginov. Boginov ended up at Gorky's «Torpedo» in this way: "He, a graduate of the coaches' school, was entrusted with preparing the Leningrad junior hockey team for a friendly match against their Gorky peers. The game ended shamefully for the Leningrad visitors — the hosts scored either 15 or 20 goals against them and did not concede a single one.

On returning home, Boginov sent a letter to the trade union committee of the Gorky Automobile Plant and offered his services as coach of "Torpedo". They replied with their consent…" Boginov died on 4 June 1992. Besides the Gorky side, he coached «Dynamo» of Kiev and «Lokomotiv» of Moscow, where, however, he achieved no serious success.

World, European and Olympic champions

  • Konovalenko, Viktor Sergeyevich
  • Varnakov, Mikhail Pavlovich
  • Kovin, Vladimir Alexandrovich
  • Skvortsov, Alexander Vikentyevich
  • Fyodorov, Yuri Ivanovich
  • Kovalenko, Andrei

"Torpedo men" in the NHL

  • Kovalenko, Andrei (1992—2001)
  • Namestnikov Evgeny (1993—2000)
  • Artyom Chubarov (1999—2004)
  • Torgayev Pavel (1995/1996, 1999/2000)

Single-season record holders

  • 36 goals — Robert Sakharovsky (1959/60), 35 goals — Pavel Brendl (2008/09)
  • 26 assists — Igor Melyakov (1998/99)
  • 53 points on the "goals+assists" system — Mikhail Varnakov (1982/83)
  • 95 penalty minutes — Anatoly Filatov (1999/2000)

Places won

  • Silver medallist of the 1961 USSR championship. The first non-Moscow team to win medals in the USSR championship and to reach the final of the USSR Cup (1961).
  • Fourth place in the USSR championship (1981—1982 and 1984—1985), reaching the MHL quarterfinals (1994—1995), reaching the Superleague round of 16 (1999—2000), first place in the first and the second stages of the Major League (2002—2003), reaching the Major League semifinals (2004—2005), reaching the KHL round of 16 (2008/2009).

Special prizes

  • "Fair Play" of 1975
  • "Progress Cup" of 1982.

Tournament victories

Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo is the winner of major international tournaments:

  • the "Bucharest Cup" of 1960 and 1962,
  • the "Polar Cup" of 1968, 1972 and 1974,
  • the "Danube Cup" of 1966, the "Gornyak Cup" of 1958,
  • the "Henninger Cup" of 1986,
  • Winner of the tournament for the prizes of the newspaper "Sovetsky Sport" in 1960 and of the Belyaev Memorial Tournament in 1971 and 2006,

The biggest win in the club's entire history

  • Torpedo — Dizelist (Penza) 17:3 (1968—1969)

The club's biggest win over the last 5 years

  • Torpedo — Vityaz (Chekhov) 8:0 (2009—2010)

The heaviest defeat in the entire history

  • Krylya Sovetov (Moscow) — Torpedo 17:1 (1954—1955)

The heaviest defeat over the last 5 years

  • Torpedo — Atlant (Mytishchi) 2:8 (2009—2010)

Longevity record holders

  • 17 championships — Vladimir Astafyev, Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Presnyakov
  • Games in the Superleague — Anatoly Vodopyanov — 653 games.
  • Games in all leagues — Oleg Namestnikov — 720 games.
  • Best goalscorer in the Superleague — Alexander Skvortsov — 244 goals.
  • Best assistant in the Superleague — Alexander Skvortsov — 204 assists.
  • Best scorer in the Superleague on the "goals+assists" system — Alexander Skvortsov — 448 points (244+204).
  • Most penalty time — Vladimir Kovin — 570 minutes.

Sponsors

According to the information on the main page of the official website, the "Torpedo" club is supported by the following companies:

Registered address

Non-profit partnership Hockey Club "Torpedo", Nizhny Novgorod.

  • Address: 603004, Nizhny Novgorod, Loskutova Street, 10
  • Telephone and fax: (831) 295-14-41
  • E-mail: hc-torpedo@yandex.ru

Souvenir and merchandise sales department

  • E-mail: atributika@hctorpedo.ru

Advertising and marketing department

  • Telephone: +7 (831) 295-14-41
  • E-mail: reklama@hctorpedo.ru and torpedo-reklama@yandex.ru

Website administration

  • E-mail: admin@hctorpedo.ru

Official website

Official blog of the club

Merchandise shop

Photo gallery

Guest book

Forum of HC "Torpedo"

Torpedo Ultras

Charter of the Fan Club

Desktop wallpapers

Fan Art

Chants

« 
For the Volga land!
For the supporters' faith!
Onward Torpedo - smash the foes!
And in this hour - win it for us!
Victory is ours - onward Torpedo!
»


Interesting facts

  • In the winter of 1946 the task of making hockey equipment was entrusted to Ivan Korovin, a footballer of Gorky "Torpedo", who, having selected a suitable material, managed [1] (archive) to set up the production of pucks at the Gorky Automobile Plant.
  • The first official ice hockey tournament in Gorky took place at the beginning of 1947 at the "Dinamo" stadium. It was contested by "Torpedo", "Dinamo", "Spartak", "Vodnik", "Krasnaya Etna" and the Sormovo "Sudostroitel". "Torpedo" and "Spartak" met in the final. The first City Cup was won by the Avtozavod men. The following season "Torpedo" took part in the USSR championship.
  • 26 September 2009, 2:1 Torpedo - Dynamo Moscow. Torpedo fans congratulate the team's goalkeeper Bernd Bruckler on his birthday in his native German. The banner was confiscated by Moscow police officers because it contained foreign words.

See also