Vodnik Arkhangelsk

Vodnik (Russian: Водник) is a bandy club from Arkhangelsk in Russia. Vodnik was founded in 1925. During the existence of the Soviet Union the club was a part of the Voluntary Sports Societies of the USSR Vodnik.^{[citation needed]}

Vodnik became Russian champions in 1996 to begin a run of nine national championships in ten seasons, missing out only in the 2000–01 season when Yenisey scored the winning goal against them in the last minute. In the 2002 Bandy World Cup, Vodnik were the runners-up after the Swedish club Sandvikens AIK, but won the tournament in 2003 and 2004. The team also won the European Cup in 2002, 2003 and 2004.^{[citation needed]} Since their golden age, Vodnik have made many finals, both league and cup, but have constantly come up just short.

For the 2005–06 season almost all players left for Dynamo Moscow, when that club had qualified for the highest division again after a few seasons in the second tier.^{[citation needed]}

In the last game of the regular 2016–17 Russian Bandy Super League season Vodnik played against Baykal-Energiya. The loss apparently would make Vodnik face a weaker team in the playoffs, therefore the team started to score own goals. Baykal-Energiya joined, apparently for fun. Vodnik won 11-9, with all goals scored in the game being own goals. The two teams are facing sanctions from the Russian Bandy Federation.^[1] The Federation banned coach Igor Gapanovich of Vodnik Arkhangelsk and coach Evgeny Erakhtin of Baykal-Energiya each for 30 months in March 2017, and fined each club 300,000 rubles (£4,100/$5,100/€4,800) for the teams scoring an aggregate of 20 goals in their own nets rather than their opponent’s to ensure they played against a convenient team in upcoming play-offs.^[2]

Vodnik lost the 2019 Russian Cup final to Dynamo Moscow 4-2.

In the 2019-2020 season, the final two games of the playoffs, the final and 3rd place games, were cancelled. Vodnik had lost to Ska Neftianik in the semi-finals and were set to play Yenisei for 3rd.

The next seasons semi-finals consisted of the same 4 clubs, with Vodnik this time losing to Dynamo Moscow. They played a two legged series against Ska Neftianik. The first match ended tied at 4-4, but Ska prevailed in the 2nd leg, winning 4-2. Dynamo and Vodnik met in the final of the Russian Cup, with the Moscovites winning 7-5.

In 2022, Vodnik finished the regular season in 2nd, behind Dynamo. They defeated Kazan and Kuzbass to finally make it to the final against Moscow, but fell 5-2.

Finishing 2023 in 3rd place, Vodnik advanced to the semi-finals, but were defeated by Kuzbass 2-1. They finished the playoffs in 3rd after besting Dynamo 6-4.

Vodnik made the final in 2024, losing in a tight, high scoring game 7-6 to familiar foe Kuzbass. The two met in the final of the Russian Cup, with Vodnik again being defeated 5-2.

For a second year in a row, Kuzbass and Vodnik faced each other in the final. This time it was not close, with Kuzbass blowing out their opponent 10-2.