Almost all national championships have now been decided in the four major bandy countries in the world, Sweden, Russia, Norway and Finland. There is only one championship that remains to be decided. It is the Russian women’s championship which will be decided on 28 March-2 April.
FIB provides a summary of the championships here and reports the results and goal scorers.
NORWAY
Historic Norwegian gold for Drammen, but women’s final was dramatic and Ready won the gold medals.
Drammen lost last year’s men NM final to Stabæk and was eager for revenge before this year’s match. And it was a fantastic final at the Stabaek arena. The stands were filled to the brim at Stabekkbanen. Ready’s hard and tough opening minutes, creates good pressure on Drammen and Ready controls the game. But Drammen gradually plays its way into the game, gets more ball possession and becomes increasingly involved. In the second half Drammen scored 2-0 after only 1,10 minute and then dominated the game. Drammen scored two more goals in the second half and took a safe 4-0 victory and turned new Norwegian champion.
READY-DRAMMEN 0-4 (0-1)
0-1 (23) Even Lervag Thiseth, 0-2 (47) Mathias Farnes, 0-3 (79) Jonas Roine and 0-4 (94) Marius Morch Andresen.
The women’s final teams held the supporters in an iron grip the whole match and they were thrown between hope and despair. Ready was the favorite after three consecutive NM golds, but it was far from a walk in the park to get the fourth. In the series this season NTNU was overwhelming and was on top of the table in the end with 7 points ahead of Solberg and the final opponent Ready. Ready had the initiative in the first half and went into half time leading 1-0.
NTNUI made a great second half and at 88:25 the team was sent to heaven with a lead 3-2. But the feeling of gold is short-lived. In the last seconds of overtime in the second half, Ready player Ina Dahl appears and scores 3-3 on a corner. The final goes to a Golden Goal decision. Filippa Soelberg Horn is the golden winner for Ready when she scores and Ready won it’s 4th goal in a row.
NTNUI-READY 3-4 (0-1)
0-1 (39) Hermine Grove Knutsen, 1-1 (70) Laura Andresen Folleso, 2-1 (72) Eline Martens, 2-2 (75) Ella Mollhausen, 3-2 (89) Laura Andresen Folleso, 3-3 (93) Ina Dahl and 3-4 (5) Filippa Soelberg Horn, Golden Goal.
FINLAND
A big victory for JPS in the men’s final in Finland, but the women hade to decide the final in Golden Goal!
The Viitaniemi arena was nearly torn apart as JPS from Jyväskylä secured the men’s Bandy League championship. In the final, which was watched by more than 1800 people, JPS defeated last year’s champion Veitera 9-2 (6-1). JPS made a perfect game and the team really deserved the victory in front of their home audience.
JPS’s game was spectacular, and the home team’s quick counterattacks extremely difficult for Veitera. Joonas Hiltunen scored 2-0 after just over a quarter of an hour of play and ten minutes later the score was already 4-0, by Tarmo Ässämäki and Hiltunen once again.
The king of the final was JPS’s Tuomas Liukkonen with calmness and composure.
Jimi Heinonen was on Liukkonen’s level thru the game. A really strong and balanced performance and he was one of the absolute best of the match.
JPS-VEITERÄ 9-2 (6-1)
1-0 (16) Joonas Hiltunen, 2-0 (19) Tarmo Ässämäki, 3-0 (27) Joonas Hiltunen, 4-0 (37) Matias Valtanen, 4-1 (38) Tuomas Liukkonen, 5-1 (41) Tuomas Liukkonen, 6-1 (54) Joel Reponen, 6-2 (75) Veeti Pulkkinen, 7-2 (77) Nico Nevalainen and 8-2 (87) Joonas Hilttunen and 9-2 not documented.
Akilles women’s champion in Finland. Photo: The Finnish Bandy Association website.
The Women’s Bandy League final was played in Lappeenranta Kisapuisto, where the reigning champion Wiipurin Sudet and Porvoon Akilles, whose previous championship was two years ago, met. This turned out to a real thriller! Wiipurin got a flying start and scored after only 5 minutes. But Akilles made it even before half time.
The second half ended like the first one, one goal each and the final went to be decided with Golden Goal.
Martta Niemi, the young Akilles player completed her hat-trick and led Achilles to the Finnish Championship gold!
Wiipurinen Sudet-Porvon Akilles 2-3 (1-1)
1-0 (5) Fei Ikonen, 1-1 (43) Martta Niemi, 1-2 (55) Martta Niemi, 2-2 (84) Kukka-Maria Vesalehto. 2-3 (100) Martti NIemi (Golden goal).
SWEDEN
Villa Lidköping advanced to the finals for both men and women. Won the men’s title, but was defeated in the women’s final.
Villa Lidköping defended the championship gold by beating Edsbyns IF in the final.
Christoffer Edlund. Photo: Villa LIdköping BK.
For Edsbyn fans, the party ended quite quickly. Villa Lidköping took hold of the event immediately with an early lead goal. In the fifth minute, Gustav Friman put Villa Lidköping in 1-0 lead. After 38 minutes it was 4-0 to Villa Lidköping. Villa’s Christoffer Edlund scored three goals in the first half. At half-time it was 5-0 to Villa and the match felt decided. Edsbyn came back in the second half and scored three goals but Villa then closed the event.
VILLA LIDKÖPING-EDSBYN 7-3 (5-0)
1-0 (5) Gustav Friman, 2-0 (31) Christoffer Edlund, 3-0 (32) Martin Karlsson, 4-0 (38) Christoffer Edlund, 5-0 (41) Christoffer Edlund, 5-1 (55) Albin Söderkvist, 5-2 (81) Teemu Määttä, 6-2 (90) Martin Karlsson, 7-2 (91) Christoffer Edlund and 7-3 (95) Albin Bysell.
Västerås SK women’s team was able to win the series ahead of Villa Lidköping BK by only goal difference. The two teams went to the Swedish championship final. But should Villa Lidköping win the fifth straight gold or will Västerås SK break the streak?
Västerås winners. Photo: Team Fabbe/Sören
The half-time score of 2-2 also showed about the even match in advance. The second half took on a completely different face, with VSK taking control immediately. The team took the lead 3-2. But after Villa made 3-3 it was Västerås’ game to win. With twenty minutes left, they led fairly with 6-3. Västerås collected the club’s third gold on the women’s side in Sweden.
VÄSTERÅS SK-VILLA LIDKÖPING BK 7-3 (2-2)
0-1 (5) Melinda Aötberg, 1-1 (6) Edit Ljung, 1-2 (34) Melinda Altberg, 2-2 (43) Edit Ljung, 3-2 (47) Karla Thuresson, 3-3 (49) Sanna Gustafsson, 4-3 (54) Kajsa Ericsson, 5-3 (59) Elin Palm, 6-3 (70) Hilda Kolsmyr and 7-3 (90) Edit Ljung.
RUSSIA
The last national men’s final to be played was the Russian final between Kuzbass and Vodnik on yesterday, Saturday 22 March. In the Russian final, the Siberian team Kuzbass confidently set the tone for the final – 3-0 after 20 minutes, but Vodnik never gave up. The decisive in the match was then the beginning of the second half, when Kuzbass brought the advantage to 6-2, and did not give Vodnik any possibility to win the title. 10-2 – confident title defense by champions! And the cherry on the Kemerovo “cake” was Nikita Ivanov’s record in the history of the Russian championships. He made 65 assists thru the season!
KUZBASS-VODNIK 10-2 (4-2)
1-0 (7) Artem Repyakh, 2-0 (15) Janis Befus, 3-0 (20) Nikita Ivanov, 3-1 (21) Maxim Antsiferov, 3-2 (23) Evgeny Dergaev, 4-2 (40) Dmitry Makarov, 5-2 (47) Janis Befus, 6-2 (51) Vadim Chernov, 7-2 (60) Andrey Suvorov, 8-2 (65) Nikita Ivanov, 9-2 (81) Vadim Chernov and 10-2 (90) Alexander Bazdyev.
Kuzbass won the title and some of the players might leave the club after this victory. One example is the Swede Simon Jansson. In Sweden there are an ongoing discussion if it would be right to let him come back and play in Sweden after a sejour in Russia during the war in Ukraine. Simon Jansson said to the Russian Bandy Federation website:
– Of course, I am happy that we won the Championship – it was very important. But today I have mixed feelings. Tomorrow morning I’m flying home to Sweden, and it was my last match in a Kuzbass jersey. Therefore, there is joy and sadness inside me at the same time. I have a good option in Sweden with one of the clubs. In about one week everything will be decided.
THE PLAY OFFS IN THE RUSSIAN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP WILL BE PLAYED 28 MARCH-2 APRIL.