January 16, 2000
Canadian Goaltenders in Focus
It seems 2000 could turn out to be a great success for Canadian goaltenders. On
January 14, Vincent Riendeau got his fourth shut-out in Russia when Lada Togliatti won its
home game against Dynamo-Energia from Ekaterinsburg 1:0. A few days earlier Vincent made
his debut against Crystal from Elecrostal after recovering from a severe knee injury. It
was a great road win 1:7, where he stopped 19 shots out of 20.
On January 10, fellow Canadian Steve Plouffe who plays for SKA Amur from
Khabarovsk celebrated his second win, 3:1, over the club of his countryman Riendeau.
Plouffe stopped 11 shots of 12 with Riendeau stopping only 16 of 19 shots. The Khabarovsk
crowd was amazed by his skillful stickhandling and many magnificent saves. Since that
moment Plouffe became a fan favorite. In his debut game, Plouffe looked good as well
stopping 13 shots and his team won 3:2 against CSK VVS. On January 16, he got his first
shutout in a road game against CSKA Moscow when the game ended in overtime 0:1.
As for Andre Racicot, it seems he fell out of shape for some time during the long break
caused by the third stage of "The Four Nations" Baltic Cup tournament. Christmas
and New Year’s celebrations, which he spent in Canada with his family, influenced him
as well. He was outplayed by Dynamo Moscow when he allowed 6 goals on 25 shots. So the
head coach of Neftekhimik had to bench him in the road game against HC Lipetsk and gave
Andre a chance to get back in shape as soon as possible. His colleague Khomutov got the
shutout and the team won 0:3.
