Andrei Kovalenko was nicknamed the “Russian tank” in the NHL for a reason. The Olympic champion earned a reputation as one of the most powerful players of his time: the hockey player acted as a battering ram, skillfully dispersing his opponents. Often at the same time, the attacker crossed the line of fair play, collecting a generous harvest of fines.
Archive “Soviet sport”
However, in one of the matches, the famous athlete went too far. Having received another punishment for a hard foul, Kovalenko could not contain his emotions and … pounced on the referee with his fists.
The unfortunate referee had to be hospitalized.
knockout by veteran
In 2018, Rostec held another Challenge Cup for amateurs. According to the regulations, however, professionals could also be included in the teams, so big names often appeared on the field during the tournament. One of the strongest teams that season was Gazprom Export, which was represented by Alexei Yashin, Igor Varitsky and many others, including 1992 Olympic champion Kovalenko.
The Gazprom team easily passed the group stage, after which it was supposed to meet the “Tigers” in the playoffs: Andrei Razin and Mikhail Tyurkin, in particular, played for the “striped”. The knockout game was played according to the standard rules for veteran competitions, i.e. no power struggle. However, not everyone followed the instructions.
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During the match, the players of both teams violated the rules, but only Gazprom representatives were outraged by the arbitration. According to hockey players, the referees did everything possible to prevent their club from reaching the final, even ignoring the Tigers’ fouls. The episode in the third period turned out to be key in this conflict, when one of the opponents tackled Kovalenko, and he waved his cane in response. Vladislav Kiselev, who served the game, saw the violation only in the actions of Gazprom.
At this moment, Kovalenko lost his temper. Andrei shouted obscenities at the specialist, but it turned out to be impossible to convince Kiselev: he gave him another fine – for behavior. Then the hockey player launched another argument, a powerful one:
I didn’t even see him coming from behind. The judges and the players held Kovalenko so he wouldn’t come near me. He broke free and ran towards me. I looked at his face, his eyes were just crazy. I decided to talk to him, but then a blow came. I don’t remember more. They say that he lay on the ice for about two minutes,-he quotes the words of Kiselev “SE”.
“Such words must be punished”
After a while, the judge was able to get up and even end the fight, but this knockout did not pass without consequences for him. Vladislav was still not feeling well and decided to see a doctor. The diagnosis was unequivocal: a concussion. Kiselev was even offered hospitalization, but he decided to postpone treatment until he returned to his place of residence in Ufa.
Soon the scandal began to be widely discussed in the press. Kovalenko said in an interview that immediately after the match he realized that he had done something wrong and even wanted to apologize to the judge, but he was not allowed to do so. On the way to the locker room, he was stopped… by the police. As it turned out, Kiselev wrote a statement to the player after the incident.
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However, in the end, no one began to draw up a protocol for the Olympic champion. Kovalenko, in his own words, subsequently apologized to Kiselev several times over the phone and even offered to help him with treatment, but the judge refused. The year after the incident, when the hockey player became a deputy of the Yaroslavl Duma, he was again asked what had happened. This time it became clear that the athlete was only partially sorry:
– I was wrong only that I could not contain my emotions, which accumulated throughout the match. The balance tipped when, at the second break, he sat down with the rival’s players and smiled. The last straw was his harsh response, to which I, as a man, had to respond. I think I did it right, because in life you have to punish for such words, – summed up the hockey player.
