Soviet Hockey Team to Play U.S. Team at Troy, N.Y, Dec. 29

A hockey team from the Soviet Union will play a U.S. national team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Dec. 29 as part of a nine-city, 16-day tour, amateur hockey officials said Thursday.

Officials said the team, Sokol Kiev from the Soviet Union’s top division, will play the USA Select team twice as well as six college teams and one American Hockey League team during its tour of the U.S.

The tour will begin Dec. 20 at the University of Maine and end Jan. 5 against the Maine Mariners of the AHL. In between, the Russians will play Boston University Dec. 21, Lowell University Dec. 23, Dartmouth College Dec. 27, the University of Vermont Dec. 28, and Boston College Jan. 3. The second game against the USA will be New Year’s Eve at an undetermined site.

The Americans, coached by Yale hockey coach Tim Taylor, an assistant on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, will consist of college players. Sokol Kiev is an amateur team in the Soviet Elite Division, the best in the country.

The tour is being run by the Amateur Hockey Assn. of the United States.