The 2018 USA men’s national bandy team has been training hard for the last three months in anticipation of returning to the Russian Far Eastern city of Khaborovsk for the 2018 World Bandy Championships. Khaborovsk, a major city strategically located on the Amur River near the Chinese border, was the host of the 2015 bandy world championships. The Americans who were fortunate enough to have attended the 2015 tourney came away extremely impressed with the arena, city, tourney organization and fan support and are expecting another fantastic tournament this year. 

The tournament venue is again being held again in the beautiful Erofey Arena, known as the world’s finest indoor bandy area.

The 2018 Team USA will again play in the elite A-Pool tourney which features the world’s perennial top bandy countries including defending world champion Sweden, Russia, Finland, Norway and Kazakhstan as well as Germany and Hungary.  Team Hungary will be making their debut in the A-Pool after many years playing in the B-Pool tourney. Norway pulled a major upset last year, knocking off Kazakhstan in the playoffs, and as a result the Kazakhstan squad will play in the American’s bracket with Hungary and Germany, and Norway will move up and play in the top bracket with Russia, Sweden and Finland.

The Americans return several key veterans including captain Mike Carman, Andrew Knutson, Mikael Lickteig, Wyatt Wenzel, Peter Knutson, Greg Olson and four highly skilled players currently playing in top leagues in Sweden including Daren Richardson (Jonkoping), Jacob Blucher (UNIK), Kevin Brown (Borlange) and Alexnder Zitouni (Vanersborg). Some big news for Team USA in September was the return of Eric Kraska, the top USA goal keeper for the last decade and veteran of 8 world championships. Kraska already has shown he has not lost a step, winning MVP honors for the recent North American Cup.  Lickteig is back home after playing the last two seasons in Sweden and Norway, and his game has clearly improved, winning both the summer league scoring title and league MVP and is currently the top scorer in the USA winter elite league. Rounding out Team USA is Mac Williams, Dane Erickson, rookies Zack Knight and Murphy Dwyer, and keepers Zach Wynne and Gavin Ancheta.

Chris Halden returns as head coach and Chris Middlebrook will serve as Team Leader and assistant coach. Magnus Skold will also return in his 37th straight year as Team Manager, and John Hedenstrom, known as one of the best skate sharpeners in the world, will return as technical director.

Coach Halden is confident the 2018 Team USA can make a strong showing in the 2018 bandy world championship as they have a lot of players with international experience. When asked how they will prepare for the tourney, Halden said “we will take a 'one game at a time' approach and adapt our tactics and mindset accordingly. We embrace the challenge of playing in the A-Pool against the world’s best teams and players and are very excited to return to the great city of Khaborovsk, whose organizers have already proven they can deliver a world class major sports tournament.