December 26, 2004
Bringing Elite Hockey To Long Island
Despite the presence of the 4-time Stanley Cup Champion New York Islanders, Long Island hasn't exactly been known as a hotbed of elite talent (outside of Chris and Peter Ferraro). But thanks to a Lituanian immigant by the name of Aleksey Nikiforov, that's changing.
Here's Tom Allegra from Newsday:
The New York Bobcats junior elite ice hockey team coached by Nikiforov had just beaten South Kent (Mass.), 4-2, to advance to the final of the Northeast Hockey Showcase. Berglund, a Canadiens scout and UMass-Boston Hall of Fame goaltender, wanted to offer his congratulations.
"Thank you very much for bringing real hockey to New England," Berglund told Nikiforov. "I work for the Montreal Canadiens."
"Oh, yeah," Nikiforov blurted back. "Me, too."
Considering he had never met Nikiforov in his 30-plus years playing, coaching and scouting hockey, Berglund was dumbfounded. Little did he know that Nikiforov - a former Russian pro and longtime youth hockey instructor - had groomed the Canadiens' 2001 and 2002 first-round draft picks. Islip Terrace product Mike Komisarek (seventh overall pick, 2001) and Smithtown product Chris Higgins (14th, 2002) have been trained by Nikiforov since 1993.
Nikiforov describes himself as a disciple of Anatoli Tarasov, the former Soviet ice hockey coach who led that team to gold medals to three consecutive Olympic Games in 1964, 1968 and 1972 -- all the while proving to be an innovator in the way players prepared off the ice as well as practiced on it.
This piece is a rare gem, and one that Newsday shouldn't have buried deep in its high school sports section where hardly anyone could find it.
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I think it was the 2002 draft that had a few LIers go in the top two rounds. I'll have to look it up, but the quality of talent being "bred" there seems to be decent. The problem is there aren't many places for them to develop and be noticed and they usually have to ship off to prep schools in RI or Mass and/or go to a college with a good hockey program.
Posted by:
at December 27, 2004 12:12 AM
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11:45 AM