HC Tornado

HC Tornado has been a top competitor in the women's ice hockey Russian Championship since the club's inaugural season in 2003–04. During its first through fifteenth season, Tornado was the dominant force in the Russian Women's Hockey League, winning seven Russian Championship titles in and never finishing below second place. They medaled at five IIHF European Women's Champions Cup tournaments, winning the cup in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014, and claiming silver in 2006. During the period, Tornado also won three Challenge Cups and four Czech Women's Cups.

In the 2018–19 regular season Tornado ranked fifth, failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in team history.[5] The poor performance was attributed to the absence of several key players, Lyudmila Belyakova and Angelina Goncharenko on maternity leave and the departure of Maria Batalova to Agidel Ufa.[2]

The team returned to the top half of the ZhHL in the 2019–20 season, bolstered by the return of both Belyakova and Goncharenko.[6] Tornado finished the regular season as the second ranked Russian team but the newcomers to the league, China-based Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays, upset the ZhHL's traditional order, blazing to the top of the ranks and pushing each of the Russian teams down a peg. As a result, Tornado finished the regular season as the third-ranked team overall and faced the first-ranked Vanke Rays in the playoff semi-finals, where they were swept by the eventual champions.[7]

The club's players have historically represented a significant contingent of the Russian national ice hockey team rosters at the IIHF World Women's Championship and Winter Olympic Games.

The 21-woman roster selected to represent Russia in the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2014 Winter Olympics included nine HC Tornado players. In December 2017, eight Russian team players were disqualified from the tournament and banned for life from Olympic participation for doping violations. Four of the implicated players were with HC Tornado at the time of the games, forwards Ekaterina Smolentseva, Galina Skiba, and Tatiana Burina, and defenceman Anna Shukina. Sanctions were later annulled for Smolentseva, Burina, and Shukina. The disqualification of Skiba and two other Russian players was upheld, as was the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee by the IOC. The ZhHL did not sanction any of the eight players involved and their totals from the 2013–14 season remain on record.

Russia was banned from competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics by the IOC as part of the Oswald Commission rulings regarding state-sponsored doping. However, Russian athletes were permitted to compete under the designation Olympic Athletes from Russia. In practical terms, this was largely performative as the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) women's ice hockey team roster was nearly identical to the Russian national team roster that competed at the 2017 IIHF Women's World Championship. The team was coached by long-time HC Tornado head coach Alexei Vladimirovich Chistyakov and included ten Tornado players. Tornado players Maria Batalova and Yelena Dergachyova served as the team's two alternate captains and HC Tornado captain Anna Shokhina was the team's top scorer in the tournament. OAR lost the bronze medal game against Finland and finished in fourth place.

This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by HC Tornado.

Note: Finish = Rank at end of regular season; GP = Games played; W = Wins (3 points); OTW = Overtime wins (2 points); OTL = Overtime losses (1 point); L = Losses (0 points); GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Pts = Points

Season	League	Regular season									Post season results	Top scorer (regular season)
		Finish	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	Pts
2015–16	ZhHL		24	18	0	2	4	108	51	56	–	A. Shokhina, 51 (20+31)
2016–17	ZhHL		36	28	4	1	3	181	67	93	–	A. Shokhina, 81 (39+42)
2017–18	ZhHL	2nd	24	17	0	1	6	115	52	52	Lost final, 0–3 (Agidel Ufa)	A. Shokhina, 58 (22+36)
2018–19	ZhHL	5th	36	15	5	1	15	146	99	56	Did not qualify	A. Shokhina, 76 (36+40)
2019–20	ZhHL	3rd	28	14	1	5	8	63	63	49	Lost semifinal, 0–2 (KRS Vanke Rays)	A. Shokhina, 38 (17+21)

Source:[10]

Flag indicates nation of primary IIHF eligibility. Season(s) active with HC Tornado listed alongside player name.

Sources:[11][12]

This article includes content from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at ru:Торнадо (хоккейный клуб); see its history for attribution.

Notes:

• Team information and statistics from Eliteprospects.com and Eurohockey.com and Hockeyarchives.info (in French)
• HC Tornado on Instagram