Vladimir Semenovich Myshkin (russian: Владимир Семёнович Мышкин; born June 19, 1955) is a Russian former

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 hock ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

. He was a goaltender for

HC Dynamo Moscow HC Dynamo Moscow () is a Russian professional ice hockey club based in Moscow. It is a member of the Tarasov Division in the Kontinental Hockey League. Dynamo has won the Gagarin Cup twice, in 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons, and have won th ...

and the

Soviet Union national ice hockey team The Soviet national ice hockey team was the national men's ice hockey team of the Soviet Union. From 1954, the team won at least one medal each year at either the Ice Hockey World Championships ...

in the 1970s and 1980s.

Life and career

Myshkin was born in

Kirovo-Chepetsk Kirovo-Chepetsk (russian: Ки́рово-Чепе́цк) is a town in Kirov Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Cheptsa and the Vyatka Rivers, east of Kirov. Population: Geography The 50th eastern meridian runs exactly through th ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. During his career in the

Soviet Championship 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 ...

, Myshkin was consistently among the top goaltenders in the league and his Dynamo Moscow club was always among the best. However, rival Moscow club

HC CSKA Moscow HC CSKA Moscow (1946–present, russian: ЦСКА Москва, Центральный Спортивный Клуб Армии, ''Central Sports Club of the Army, Moscow'') is a Russian professional ice hockey club based in Moscow. The club i ...

won the championship almost every year he played, including an amazing 13-year run from 1977 to 1989, preventing Myshkin from winning a domestic championship until his last year. Myshkin came to prominence in the late 1970s when he earned a spot on the Soviet national team as a backup to the legendary

Vladislav Tretiak Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak, Meritorious Service Decoration (Canada), MSM ( rus, links=no, Владислав Александрович Третьяк, p=trʲɪˈtʲjak; born 25 April 1952) is a Russian former goaltender for the Soviet Un ...

. On February 11, 1979, he was the surprise choice of coach Viktor Tikhonov to start in the deciding game in the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

tournament against the

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 ...

all stars. Myshkin responded with a sterling effort, shutting out the NHL stars 6-0 to win the Challenge Cup for the Soviets. A couple of months later, he won his first of six World and European championships, the others coming in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, and 1990. After Tretiak gave up two goals in the first period of the famous "

Miracle on Ice The "Miracle on Ice" was an ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. It was played between the hosting United States and the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980, during the medal round of the men's hockey tourna ...

" game versus the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in the medal round of the

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

, Tikhonov replaced him with Myshkin. He faced only 2 shots in the second period, and stopped them both, but gave up 2 goals in the third scored by Americans Mark Johnson and

Mike Eruzione Michael Anthony "Rizz, Rizzo" Eruzione (, , born October 25, 1954) is an American former ice hockey player. He is best known as the captain of the 1980 Winter Olympics United States national team that defeated the Soviet Union in the famous "Mir ...

. Team USA won the game 4-3 and went on to capture the gold medal with the Soviets taking the silver. In 1981, Myshkin was a member of the Soviet team that won 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 world ...

, the only time

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

failed to win the tournament. He played in one game and backed up Tretiak for the 8-1 victory in the final. In 1984, he won his only

Olympic gold medal Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

, backing up Tretiak for the last time. Tretiak retired after the tournament. In his first major event as starting goaltender of the Soviet national team, he led the Soviets to a perfect 5-0 record in the round robin of the 1984 Canada Cup by going 3-0 in his three starts before being defeated by Canada 3-2 in overtime in the semifinals. Nonetheless, Myshkin played spectacularly that game in a losing cause, being named the USSR's player of the game, and was named to the tournament all-star team for his heroics. As the starting goaltender of the national team, he backstopped them to a bronze medal at the 1985 World Championships and a gold in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

on home ice in Moscow. The following year, the 31-year-old Myshkin was replaced by younger goaltenders

Evgeny Belosheikin Yevgeni Vladimirovich Belosheikin (Евгений Белошейкин) (April 17, 1966 – November 18, 1999) was a professional ice hockey player who played in the Soviet Hockey League. He played for the HC CSKA Moscow and SKA Leningrad. He al ...

and

Sergei Mylnikov Sergei Aleksandrovich Mylnikov (russian: Сергей Александрович Мыльников, 6 October 1958 – 20 June 2017) was a Soviet and Russian ice hockey goaltender and coach who competed in the Soviet Hockey League, National Hocke ...

. After 1986, he appeared only once more at the World Championships, that being in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

as the team's third-string goaltender in a largely token gesture, as Myshkin had already announced he would retire following the season. Myshkin's final season would be a memorable one. First, he won the Soviet League championship for the only time in his career, as his Dynamo club ended CSKA's long championship reign and won its first title since 1954. Then at the World Championships, after watching his team's first nine games, he was given the start in the very last game. He finished his career in style, shutting out

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

5-0 and clinched the gold medal.

References

External links

Statistics
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Myshkin, Vladimir 1955 births Living people People from Kirovo-Chepetsk HC Dynamo Moscow players Ice hockey players at the 1980 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1984 Winter Olympics Krylya Sovetov Moscow players Lukko players Medalists at the 1984 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic ice hockey players of the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Russia men's national ice hockey team coaches Russian ice hockey coaches Russian ice hockey goaltenders Soviet expatriate ice hockey players Soviet ice hockey goaltenders Medalists at the 1980 Winter Olympics Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Finland Sportspeople from Kirov Oblast