Legendary Soviet ice hockey coach Tikhonov dies

The Russian Ice Hockey Federation announced on Monday that Viktor Tikhonov had died after a long illness.

"Last night, Russian hockey and all Russian sport suffered an irreplaceable loss -- the legendary trainer and famed hockey player Viktor Tikhonov passed away," a statement released by the federation said.

The statement did not disclose the nature of Tikhonov's illness, but there were reports in the Russian media that he had been admitted to hospital at the end of last month and had been unable to walk without assistance.

As the news of Tikhonov's death spread, so did the tributes to the long time coach of the Soviet national team, which dominated international ice hockey from the late 1970s through the early 1990s.

"The entire global hockey community has lost a great coach," Vladislav Tretiak, president of the Russian Hockey Federation, told Russia's R-Sport news agency.

"He devoted his entire life to hockey until the last second. Even when I was with him in hospital, we were discussing what needed to be done and how, in order to raise the Russian national team to the very highest level," said Tretiak, himself a legendary goalie who backstopped Tikhonov's Soviet team.

The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had expressed his condolences to the Tikhonov family.

Unbridled international, domestic success

Tikhonov led the Soviets to two Olympic gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Winter Games, as he coached the Unified Team, which captured gold in 1992 after the Soviet Union had collapsed. He also won eight world championship titles, the 1979 Challenge Cup between the Soviets and a team of NHL all-stars, as well as the last the 1981 Canada Cup. Domestically, he led CSKA Moscow to 13 consecutive Soviet titles between 1977 and 1989.

Wrong side of the 'miracle'

However, some fans outside of Russia may remember him for being on the wrong side of one of the biggest-ever upsets in international hockey, when a team of US college players beat the Soviets at the 1980 Winter Olympics - a game that became known as the "miracle on ice." While the US team went on to claim gold, the Soviets had to settle for the silver medal.

Tikhonov's grandson, also named Viktor, who played one season with the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes, now plays for SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League.

The elder Tikhonov will be laid to rest with a memorial service at CSKA Moscow on Thursday.

pfd/mr (AFP, Reuters, AP)