Hockey Club Tornado Moscow Region (Russian: Хоккейный клуб «Торнадо» Московская область, romanized: Khokkeynyy klub "Tornado" Moskovskaya oblast'), often shortened to HC Tornado, Tornado Moscow Region or Tornado Dmitrov,[i] is a professional ice hockey club in the Zhenskaya Hockey League (ZhHL). The team is based in Dmitrov, Moscow Oblast, Russia, and they play at the ice palace of the Dmitrov Sport Complex (Russian: Спортивный комплекс Дмитров, romanized: Sportivnyy kompleks Dmitrov), abbreviated as SC Dmitrov (Russian: СК Дмитров).[5] Tornado is a nine-time Russian Champion and won the European Women's Champions Cup four times.
History
HC Tornado has been a top competitor in the women's ice hockey Russian Championship since the club's inaugural season in 2003–04. During its first fifteen seasons, Tornado was the dominant force in the Russian Women's Hockey League, winning seven national titles and never finishing below second place. They medaled at five IIHF European Women's Champions Cup (EWCC) tournaments, winning the cup in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014, and claiming silver in 2006; Tornado is tied with AIK Hockey Dam for most EWCC titles held by a single team. During the same period, Tornado also won three Challenge Cups and four Czech Women's Cups.
In the 2018–19 season Tornado ranked fifth in the regular season, failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in team history.[6] The poor performance was attributed to the absence of several key players, such as Lyudmila Belyakova and Angelina Goncharenko, who were on maternity leave, and the departure of Maria Batalova to Agidel Ufa.[2]
The team returned to the top half of the ZhHL in the 2019–20 season, bolstered by the return of both Belyakova and Goncharenko.[7] Tornado finished the regular season as the second ranked Russian team but the newcomers to the league, China-based Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays, upset the ZhHL's traditional order, blazing to the top of the ranks and pushing each of the Russian teams down a peg. As a result, Tornado finished the regular season as the third-ranked team overall and faced the first-ranked Vanke Rays in the playoff semifinals, where they were swept by the eventual champions.[8]
Season-by-season results
This is a partial list of recent seasons completed by HC Tornado.
Note: Finish = Rank at end of regular season; GP = Games played; W = Wins (3 points); OTW = Overtime wins (2 points); OTL = Overtime losses (1 point); L = Losses (0 points); GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Pts = Points
Records valid through the conclusion of the 2020–21 ZhHL season.
Single-season records
For statistics measured by percentage or average, skaters playing in less than 80% of games and goaltenders playing in fewer than 10 games in a season not included.
The 21-woman roster selected to represent Russia in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2014 Winter Olympics included nine HC Tornado players. In December 2017, eight Russian team players were disqualified from the tournament and banned for life from Olympic participation for doping violations. Four of the implicated players were with HC Tornado at the time of the games, forwards Ekaterina Smolentseva, Galina Skiba, and Tatiana Burina, and defenceman Anna Shukina. Sanctions were later annulled for Smolentseva, Burina, and Shukina. The disqualification of Skiba and two other Russian players was upheld, as was the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee by the International Olympic Committee (IIHF). The Ice Hockey Federation of Russia did not sanction any of the eight players involved and their totals from the 2013–14 RWHL season remain on record.
The number of expatriates who have played with HC Tornado is fairly small compared to its Russian alumni. However, most of the team's international players have been members of their countries’ national teams, including players from the IIHF Top Division national teams of Canada, Slovakia, Sweden, and the United States.
Note: Flag indicates nation of primary IIHF eligibility.
^In English, the team is also referred to as "Moscow Region Tornado,"[1] "Tornado Moscow Oblast,"[2] or "HK Tornado" (transliteration of ХК «Торнадо»).[3] The name “Women's Hockey Club Tornado” or “WHC Tornado” (Russian: Женская хоккейная команда «Торнадо» (ЖХК «Торнадо»)) is often used by Russian-language sources, most notably by the club on its social media accounts, but is rarely encountered in other languages.[4]
