1945-46 in Soviet ice hockey

This was the 1945-46 ice hockey season in the Soviet Union:

Overview

In 1945, Sergei Savin, head of the soccer and hockey department of the All-Union Committee for Physical Culture, was tasked by the organization's chair, Nikolai Romanov, to study the Winter Olympics program. In the report, Savin noted that Canadian hockey was "in the center of the public attention" at the Games, and Romanov then issued the directive that "This Canadian hockey must be put on Russian tracks immediately". Edgars Klavs met with Savin, providing him with a Canadian hockey rule book a hockey stick, gloves, skates, pucks, and showed some ice hockey footage from Latvia.

Savin then met with the leading sports clubs in Moscow. The top bandy players and coaches, including Pavel Korotkov of CDKA and Arkady Chernyshev of Dynamo, became aware of the "character and substance of the new game and with the prospects of broad international ties."

After five months of training, 12 students of the Moscow Institute of Physical Education held an ice hockey demonstration game at the Dynamo Stadium on February 17, 1946. It was played on the same day as bandy match between Dynamo and CDKA Moscow. The demonstration of hockey with a puck was accompanied by a qualified explanation of the rules, techniques and tactics of the game, and the audience liked it.

The following was written in Sovietsky Sport: "The match between Dinamo and CDKA has ended, but thousands of spectators remain. Their attention is attracted by a small goal, like in water polo. The small field is surrounded by boards. On the field there is a referee with a 'police whistle' and there are two teams – one red and one white – with six players per side. On the back of the players there are numbers and in their hands unusual sticks – long, light, with a long hook at an almost right angle. On the ice there is a solid black rubber 'disc', heavy and gliding over the ice with lightning speed. This is a demonstration match held by students of the Institute of Physical Culture. In Europe and North America, Canadian hockey is very popular. Without a doubt, it can be developed in the Soviet Union as well."

CDKA also staged a public ice hockey demonstration in Sverdlovsk that February, following a scheduled bandy match.

An interesting note appeared in Physical Culture No. 2 (Riga), "This year, for the first time in the Soviet Union, Canadian hockey cup games will be held. These games will be held from March 10 to March 17 in the distant northern city of Arkhangelsk. Latvian SSR hockey players will also take part in the competitions. In preparation for the expected games, our hockey players are training hard. " It was later reported in a March 1 Padomieu Jaunatne article, that the Latvians saw games with the Lithuanian teams (see 1945-46 Baltic matches) as preparation for the competition in Arkhangelsk.

There was an ice hockey tournament staged in Arkhangelsk in March, won by CDKA Moscow, over other teams of the army, fleet and police, which had only recently picked up the sport.