Ahead of the competition, the President presented the prize to the winning team of the Night Hockey League's Amateur 40+ division. Yekaterinburg's team, Skon-Ural, received a certificate for the construction of an indoor ice skating rink in their city. Together with Vladimir Putin, the awards ceremony was attended by Alexander Yakushev, a renowned hockey player and the Night Hockey League's Legend Council Chairman.
Earlier on Friday, Skon-Ural defeated Kaliningrad's Zapad Rossii [Russia's West] team, and for the third time won the Night Hockey League and the Krutov Cup.
Vladimir Putin played for the Hockey Legends team as No. 11 against the Night Hockey League team. Among those who took part in the match were also Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and hockey players Vyacheslav Fetisov, Pavel Bure, Alexei Kasatonov and Viktor Shalimov. The Hockey Legends team won 14–7, with the President scoring 9 goals.
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Speech at the awards ceremony
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, sports fans, spectators and athletes,
I congratulate you on the end of the 8th Night Hockey League season. Thank you for inspiring millions of people to get involved in fitness and sports.
I would like to congratulate the winners – for the third time, it is the team from Yekaterinburg. I want to wish you success and say that this is a true accomplishment. Almost one thousand teams play today in the Night Hockey League, and 162 teams came here to Sochi to take part in the playoff stage. There is immense competition. I saw the so-called amateurs play – they were simply impressive. It is not so easy for our stars to play against you, particularly since I represent you on that team.
Today, the Ice Hockey World Championship starts. The Russian national team will play against Norway, a strong team. Let us wish our team success.