This past week, Vladislav Firstov and Yan Kuznetsov made history. Both UConn men’s hockey players were named to the Russia World Juniors team — the first NCAA players to do so.
It’s only fitting that the first two come from the Huskies’ program. Since the school joined Hockey East, UConn have featured a handful of Russian or those of Russian descent, such as Max Letunov, Sasha Payusov, Ruslan Iskhakov, Firstov, Kuznetsov and Artem Shlaine.
“We’ve had a lot of success with the Russian players,” assistant coach Tyler Helton said. “I know we’re really excited that both Yan and Vlad made the team.