Barys Astana
An Ice Hockey Wiki article.
| Barys Astana (Барыс Астана) | |
 | |
| Division | Chernyshev |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Home Arena | Alatau Sports Palace |
| City | Astana, Kazakhstan |
| Colors | blue and white |
| |
| Owner(s) | Nurlan Orazbaev |
| General Manager | Dmitriy Raykhel |
| Head Coach | Alexander Visotsky |
Barys Hockey Club (in Russian: Барыс Астана хоккей клубы, "Astana Panthers") is a professional hockey team based in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. The team plays in the Continental Hockey League.
Contents |
[edit] Accomplishments
- Kazakhstan Championship winner: 2008.
- Pervaya Liga winner (Ural zone): 2007.
[edit] History
Barys Astana was founded in 1999. The Panthers' (Barys is a kazakh word meaning panther) inaugural season was 1999-00, where they played in the Kazakhstan Championship. Barys would stay there until 2007.
In 2004-05, Barys was admitted into the Russian hockey system. They made their debuts in the Pervaya Liga; in parallel, Barys kept a second team in the Kazakh Championship. Barys' debuts in Russia was interesting, with the team doing fairly well. They played three seasons in the Pervaya Liga, where they finished respectively 3rd, 2nd and 1st of the Ural - Western Siberia zone where they played. With this first place in 2007, Barys was allowed into the Vysshaya Liga.
Astana played a single season in the Vysshaya Liga, a good one, where they finished second out of 14 in the West conference. They reached the playoffs, where they began by sweeping HK Belgorod in three straight games in the first round, before falling to Khimik Voskresensk in four games. Barys however won the Kazakh Championship that year. Barys' main team did not participate in the regular season of the league (however, its affiliate, Barys Astana-2, did), but the league's format was so that the three best team of the league after the regular season would play the three best Kazakh teams (Barys' main team, Kazzinc-Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk and Kazakhmys Satpaev, all three playing in the Vysshaya Liga) in the playoffs. Barys won the tournament, dethroning defending champions Torpedo, en route to their first Kazakh title.
In 2008, Barys applied to join the newly formed Continental Hockey League. The league's authorities allowed Barys in, making it the first Kazakh team into the new league. The team won its first game in the KHL on September 3rd 2008 abroad, defeating Metallurg Nizhnekamsk 2-1 in the shootouts. They registered their first home game eleven days later by beating defending Russian champions Salavat Yulaev Ufa 3-2, this time again in shootout. The team finished its first season with a 15th place overall in the league (5th out of 6 in the highly competitive Chernyshev division). The team made the playoffs and faced Ak Bars Kazan in the first round (2nd overall in the league); Kazan swept Astana three games to nothing to advance to the second round. Kevin Dallman finished the season as the league's fifth best scorer with a 28 goals and 30 assists (58 points) record; he also finished as the league's leader for shots on goal with 217. Konstantin Glazachev finished 9th overall in the league in scoring with 52 points (28 goals and 24 assists).
[edit] Current roster
[edit] All-time standings
[edit] Captains
[edit] Head coaches
[edit] Barys Greats
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Template:Ice hockey in Kazakhstan
