Sergei Aleksandrovich Mylnikov (russian: Сергей Александрович Мыльников, 6 October 1958 – 20 June 2017) was a Soviet and Russian

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

goaltender and coach who competed in the

Soviet Hockey League The Soviet Hockey Championship (russian: Чемпионат СССР по хоккею) was the highest level ice hockey league in the Soviet Union, running from 1946 to 1992. Before the 1940s the game of ice hockey was not cultivated in Russia, i ...

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, and the

Swedish Division 2 Division 2 is the fourth level in the league system of Swedish football and comprises 84 Swedish football teams. Division 2 had status as the official second level from 1928 to 1986 but was replaced by Division 1 in 1987. It then had status as ...

between 1977 and 1995. He was the first Soviet goaltender to play in the National Hockey League. He mostly played for

Traktor Chelyabinsk Traktor Chelyabinsk, also known as Traktor (russian: Трактор), is a professional ice hockey team based in Chelyabinsk, Russia. They are members of the Kharlamov Division of the Eastern Conference of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). ...

(1976–80, 1983–89), and also briefly for

SKA Leningrad The Hockey Club SKA (russian: Спортивный клуб СКА), often referred to as SKA Saint Petersburg and literally as the Sports Club of the Army, is a Russian professional ice hockey club based in Saint Petersburg. They are members o ...

(1980–82), the

Quebec Nordiques The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...

(1989–90),

Torpedo Yaroslavl Hockey Club Lokomotiv (russian: ХК Локомотив, en, Locomotive HC), also known as Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, is a Russian professional ice hockey team, based in the city of Yaroslavl, playing in the top level Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) ...

(1991–93) and Skedvi/Säter IF (1993–95). He was a member of the Soviet national team, winning a gold medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics and at the

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

and 1990 IIHF World Championships. He was named to the Soviet All-Star team in 1988 and inducted into the

Russian and Soviet Hockey Hall of Fame Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries * Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and pe ...

in 1985. Mylnikov helped the Soviet junior team to back-to-back junior world championships in 1977 and 1978. He was also the starting Soviet goaltender at the

Canada Cup The Canada Cup (french: Coupe Canada) was an invitational international ice hockey tournament held on five occasions between 1976 and 1991. The brainchild of Toronto lawyer Alan Eagleson, the tournament was created to meet demand for a true worl ...

in 1987.

Playing career

Mylnikov took up hockey at the age of 6, encouraged by his father, and took up goaltender position because of his relatively small stature. His international debut was delayed by a strong competition from multiple gifted Soviet goaltenders, including

Vladislav Tretiak Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak, MSM ( rus, links=no, Владислав Александрович Третьяк, p=trʲɪˈtʲjak; born 25 April 1952) is a Russian former goaltender for the Soviet Union national ice hockey team. Considere ...

and

Vladimir Myshkin Vladimir Semenovich Myshkin (russian: Владимир Семёнович Мышкин; born June 19, 1955) is a Russian former ice hockey goaltender. He was a goaltender for HC Dynamo Moscow and the Soviet Union national ice hockey team in the ...

. Mylnikov finished his career with Säter IF in Sweden in 1995, and remained there as the head coach for two seasons (1995–97). After that he trained several Russian clubs in 1997–2012. He also continued playing masters hockey until 2010, when he had a major heart surgery. He died in 2017 at the age of 58, and was survived by sons Dmitri and Sergei Jr., a brother, and a nephew – all of whom were ice hockey goaltenders.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* 1958 births 2017 deaths Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery Ice hockey players at the 1988 Winter Olympics Lokomotiv Yaroslavl players Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic ice hockey players of the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in ice hockey Quebec Nordiques draft picks Quebec Nordiques players Russian ice hockey goaltenders SKA Saint Petersburg players Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Canada Soviet expatriate ice hockey players Soviet ice hockey goaltenders Sportspeople from Chelyabinsk Traktor Chelyabinsk players Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Expatriate ice hockey players in Canada Expatriate ice hockey players in Hungary Expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Russian expatriate ice hockey people Russian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Russian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary {{Russia-icehockey-goaltender-stub