Sergey, 17, who is a trainee of the Moscow Spartak hockey school, has made his sensational appearance in the league this season. Winning two awards he became the best goaltender and the best rookie of the league. They say that a goaltender earns a half of the team’s success. Sergey has become much more than a half for his team showing outstanding and steady performance during the season and leading the Bulls through the play-off series to be the Russel Cup Champions.

His performance is really impressive. Sergey has played 37 regular season games with 2287 minutes of ice time making 1248 saves out of 1332, which is .932 saving percentage. He has even perfected it during the play-offs, so that it became .947 with 12 wins and only one loss.

Sergey’s initial pursuit was to make it to a CHL team, but he actually had bad luck. The Hockey Canada has suspended drafting goaltenders who are not US or Canadian citizens. So he had to opt for the only possible variant – to play where it was possible. Even so, he is well satisfied with what he has. Sergey says that he has gained tremendous experience making from 25 to 65 saves per game. For example, the Bulls beat the Rattlers in the second game of the finals with Sergey’s 58 saves and only one goal that he allowed.

The recent season has brought much progress to Sergey Bolshakov and that is partly the merit of his previous Moscow Spartak coach Sergey Sergeyev. Bolshakov has made a real goaltender, who could claim his place in the Russian National U18 team during the upcoming World Championship in April.