After playing the 2015 World Championships in the Russian Far East city of Khaborovsk, the USA Men’s bandy team made an anxiously awaited return trip to Russia for the 2016 World Championship.  This year’s tournament was located in Ulyanovsk, a city of 600,000 located in central Russia. The citizens of Ulyanovsk are very familiar with bandy, having had a team in the Russia Super League for many years and boasting the new Volga Sports Arena that features an indoor bandy arena. Playing in the tough A-Pool division, Team USA knew they had to be at the top of their game not only to just compete, but to secure their position in the 8 team A-Pool that included powerful Russia, Sweden, Finland, Kazakhstan, plus rivals Belarus, Latvia and Norway. The USA team wanted no part of falling into the nine team B-Pool that played the week after the A-Pool group in the same location. After a devastating loss to Latvia in the 2015 tournament, the team was on a mission to play at a much higher level and began training hard in October on indoor ice as well as instituting weekly tough dryland training at First Athlete in Edina. The team added some new firepower with David Martinson, Archie Skalbeck and the return of veteran Mikael Sandberg to the lineup and after a four months of hard training, felt much better prepared than last year.

The team was greeted at the airport in Ulyanovsk by a large press contingent as well as several Russian ladies dressed in traditional Russia gowns who provided a freshly baked round loaf of bread to the team as a traditional sign of welcome. The team then checked into the 21-story Venets Hotel overlooking the might Volga River and you could feel the excitement in the air as the other teams began checking in.

It was only fitting Team USA opened the 2016 tourney against Latvia, the team who had set the program off the rails a year before. Not this time. Team USA rolled over them 11-1 led by Daren Richardson’s hat trick. Team USA completely dominated the match and unleashed a relentless offense. USA’s Kevin Brown clearly showed he had even more speed to offer than in the 2015 tourney as he was able to slice and dice through Latvia for two goals.

Optimistic, the USA team stayed and watched the Norwegian team lose to Belarus and felt they were ready to play Norway, their next opponent in the round robin.  While confident, they were still well aware they would have to bring their A-game to stay with the talented and crafty Norwegians. Unfortunately, the Norwegians came out flying and mixing it up with air balls and a speed the Americans had some trouble adjusting to out of the gate. Still, while being outplayed in the game’s opening minutes, the Americans still held tough and when American keeper Derek Melander stopped a penalty shot, the team had a brief lift. But just when things were looking better, a fluke long chip that evaded Melander allowed the Norwegians to get on the board first. The Norwegians continue to press hard and added another tally on a USA turnover in front of their net, a corner stroke goal, and with one more goal Norway took a shocking 4-0 lead at half. Undaunted, the Americans changed their strategy and came out much more aggressive in the second half and this gave them more confidence and they were able to relax and generate much more offense. Unfortunately, despite a lot of chances to score, the Americans could not get on the board and by opening things up, allowed Norway to pop in three more goals, resulting in a 7-0 final result.

Going into game three against Belarus, the USA team still felt confident they could play them tough as they had played a solid second half against Norway.  However, another bad start plagued the team as Belarus capitalized on some costly turnovers, taking a 2-0 lead on the Americans. This time, the USA team was able to shake off the deficit and jump start their game plan and were soon able to tie the score 2-2.  Melander held tough in goal and the Americans started to really build up their attack. The Belarus team had added several snipers from the Russia Super league which made them dangerous but the American defense was able to stop them from mounting a consistent attack like they had done to beat Norway. The two teams kept trading goals but Belarus pulled ahead by as much as 6-3 and 7-4 in the second half and it looked like the Americans might be finished. But with about 20 minutes left, the Americans put a full court press on the rapidly tiring Belarus team and this hard work paid off as Carman and Lickteig scored to narrow the gap to a razor thin 7-6 lead for Belarus. The Americans completely dominated the rest of the game, trying to get the tying tally. During the frantic last few minutes, Daren Richardson hit the post on a penalty shot, another post was hit on a corner stroke and numerous scrambles broke out in front of the net as the Americans launched a relentless attempt to tie the score. Unfortunately, the exhausted Belarus team hung on by a thread, and escaped with a 7-6 squeaker. Standout players for the American were Mike Lickteig who had the hat trick, and Mike Carman and Daren Richardson who each scored a goal and had numerous power rushes through the Belarus defense that created scoring chances, especially at the end of the game.

Emboldened by the dominating performance against Belarus, the Americans went into their quarter-final game with Russia with both excitement and confidence.  The game against the defending world champions was in Dimitrovgrad, a city of about 122,000 located two hours east of Ulyanovsk. The game was played outdoors in an older Soviet style stadium that was packed to the hilt for the match that gave the locals the rare chance to not only watch the much admired World Champion Russia National team but also a rare glimpse at the charismatic USA Bandy Team. The USA team came out skating hard, making it difficult for the Russians to mount their usual relentless attack. The choppy ice hurt the flow for both teams, but slowly but surely the Russians were able to capitalize on American turnovers and built up a 9-0 lead at half. While the score looked like another blowout was imminent, it was clear the Americans had still played solid defense in the first half and had enough energy to mount several chances to score, therefore the feeling in the locker room was excitement and enthusiasm rather than gloom. The Americans came out strong in the second half and their hard work paid off as they got on the board with goals by Kevin Brown and Mike Lickteig and held the Russians to only three more goals, an incredible feat. Backup keeper Gavin Ancheta relieved Derek Melander and played solid the last 30 minutes. The final score was 12-2, but everyone who was at the game felt the Americans gave a strong performance against the world champions.  As Russia rolled up 16 goals on Bronze medalist Kazakhstan later in the tourney, the 12 goals scored by Russia against the Americans stood out even more as remarkable.

On a much needed day off, Team USA was invited to visit a local school where the teachers and students gave a warm welcome and treated the team to several talent shows and musical performances as well as a tea party featuring Russian delicacies. The boys in blue were a huge hit with the students who were impressed with the American player’s genuine smiles and charisma which they said was contagious. Likewise, the Americans were touched by the pure warmth and genuine enthusiasm by the students. Overall, no one could deny what was left behind was a truly wonderful feeling of affection for all involved.

The rematch for seventh place was vastly different than the year before when a tired American team allowed the Latvians to stay close and then sting them with late goals and steal the match. This year it was no contest as the vastly improved USA rolled over Latvia 15-0 with Kevin Brown’s 4 goals and Mike Carman’s hat trick. Also scoring were back liners Scott Arundel and Greg Olson who were given a chance to move up and Mikael Sandberg who was playing in his last international match. Rookie Archie Skalbeck chipped in two goals and added several assists to finish strong in his first VM.

While on the surface a seventh place finish was below the team’s expectations, according to Team USA head coach Chris Halden there were definitely several major positives to be taken from this tourney. First, the team stayed firmly in the A-Pool where the USA team feels they definitely belong. The team was able to find a consistent style of play that allowed them to play not only even with but at times able to dominate teams in their bracket as well as compete with the upper echelon teams. The team’s ability to keep fighting and come back from being down was also a huge plus. Other pluses included the emergence of team captain Mike Carman as a dominant international level bandy player and Daren Richardson’s return to form as a world class player after struggling with injuries the last couple of years were also huge variables. Another big plus was Mikael Lickteig emerging as a high scoring power forward as well as a much needed relentless defensive forward which is so important in the A-Pool competition. New additions David Martinson and Archie Skalbeck gave the team more depth.  The overall high level of play of the team’s fullbacks Andrew Knutson, Greg Olson and Scott Arundel was also a huge variable in the team’s success as they were consistently able to shut down the opposition’s talented snipers. Finally, this was Rick Haney’s 20th world championship, a world record and remarkable feat that will probably never be broken. To top that off, he also played in his 200th international match (second most in history to Halden’s 254) and was honored by providing him with the coveted #200 jersey to wear during the Norway match.  It was quite fitting Haney could go out still playing in top form and with a USA team that left a strong impression both on and off the ice to both the bandy world and citizens of Ulyanovsk and Dimitrovgrad.

All in all, the players on the Team USA will never forget the 2016 World Bandy Championship.