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enigmatic · 10-08-2015, 11:19 PM

<div align="center"> Russia

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Maria Maximova is now one of the most well known names in the SMJHL but just over two years ago, not many people knew about her. To say that the Knights took a chance when drafting her with their second round pick in S24 would be an understatement. Indeed, the Russian defensewoman had a craptastic rookie showcase and her shy nature didnâ€™t help her get her name out there before the draft.

Two years have passed and her dedication to the sport and her teammates greatly helped her reputation. The Saint Petersburg native was the second defenseman to go in the S25 SHL entry draft after her great career rival Jasper Clayton (jk I love you), at 4th overall. Although some people thought she was ready to play in West Kendall last season, a common agreement between the Platoonâ€™s management and herself kept her in Kelowna for one more season.

â€œThe affection I have for this organization, its management and especially my teammates had a big impact on my decision to stay in the SMJHL this seasonâ€, Maximova said. â€œI am sure I will be very happy in West Kendall too, I felt very welcome this year already, but with the amazing team they had, I felt like it would be better for my development to stay down one more season and that it will therefore be beneficial for them in the future.â€

While we definitely cannot say that Maxi is the most talkative player in the media room, the junior environment in which she developed greatly helped her with her confidence both as a player, a teammate and an ambassador for the Knights organization. She became great friends with several of her teammates and was chosen as a rookie to be seconding beloved captain Randy Randleman in a team vote. She saw this as an opportunity to do more for her team and teammates and you would rarely see her miss a team event. She has, for one, helped her teammate Ivan Koroviev with his English in their two years spent together in Kelowna. â€œNow I get a general idea of what heâ€™s talking about.â€ commented Tony Flow. â€œI mean, I get like 2 words per sentence but itâ€™s still 2 more words than last year.â€

In her first season in North America, Maximova took the league by surprise. She has been labeled as an offensive defenseman early in her junior career, and with good reasons. In her first year with the Knights, she scored 10 goals and recorded 24 assists. She contributed a lot on the power play, as most of her goals came on the one-man advantage. Her point total ranked her first amongst rookie defensemen and was reason enough for most experts to name her best defenseman of the S25 SHL draft. While she took pride in this, she had a hard time getting used to the attention.

â€œIt was certainly a lot of pressure and I was not ready to deal with it. My second year in the SMJHL started very well but I struggled mid-season. It was tough for me to adapt to the role of top defenseman and I guess it eventually showed. I tried to keep things more simple at the end of the season and focus on my strengths and I believe it paid off.â€

Indeed, near the end of the season, Maria had a seven game point scoring streak, which was the longest in her short career. She would finish the year with 39 points, a slight increase over her S24 total. She also took more shots, and blocked more shots than during her first year as a Knight. Another thing she improved was her checking. Perhaps the only negative thing we could say about her second season in juniors is that she took nearly twice as many penalties, including five fights.

One thing that Maximova wished to improve in her game was her defense and that was certainly accomplished. While she saw next to no action on the penalty killing during her first season, GMs Sorenson and Carlsson showed faith in her abilities and she was on the first PK unit for the entirety of S25. While the Knightsâ€™ numbers in that department were not great by any means, her individual statistics still did not suffer from this major change as she finished the year with a +/- ratio of +3.

The Russian didnâ€™t really get the opportunity to prove her worth during the S24 playoffs, as the Knights got eliminated in five little games to the eventual champions, the Vancouver Whalers. Maximova wouldâ€™ve probably liked the playoffs to keep going, scoring three goals and three assists, and keeping her +/- differential to +4.

In the S25 playoffs, the Knights were finally able to win a round and while Maria had average offensive statistics, her great performance on defense has certainly helped her team win the Four Star Cup. She was one of the leaders in blocked shots among her teammates and she played the most minutes on the penalty killing as well. She eventually contributed on offense, though, with no less than three assists in the decisive Game 5 against the MontrÃ©al Impact.

The playoffs ended with the Knights winning the Four Star Cup. This match would be the last many of them would play in the SMJHL and they could not have dreamed of a better ending to their junior career. After their disappointing playoffs run in S24, nobody saw them going far in S25. Their all-star goalie Igor Ogorodnikov was gone to Texas, their top scorer Adam Abodobe was up in Edmonton with Richard Dâ€™Amourâ€¦ Many thought Paul Sorenson and Daniel Carlsson would not be able to find a solution to the goaltending problem and were dumbasses to trade so many first round picks. However, Christoffer BjÃ¶rnsson proved to be the starting goaltender the Knights needed and the players acquired from the trades, Veenstra, Scuderi and Chamas, had a major role to play in the playoffs. Sorenson and Carlsson proved yet again that they were pros in finding gems both in the draft or in free agency. After all, Captain Randy Randleman and alternate captain Jonathan Lundberg were free agents when they joined Kelowna. Ivan Koroviev was a third round pick, no less, as was Mainio MÃ¤kinen. BjÃ¶rnsson was selected in the second round, just like Maximova.

<div align="center"> [Image: o6z6lx.png]

Maximova with the Four Star Cup</div>
â€œIt was like a scene taken from a movie. We had Randy our captain, playing his third and last season in the SMJHL, who had one last shot at glory, Whooves who was just on fire, Vil doing everything to be the MVP of the playoffs, Matt, Mirko and Naeem just proving everybody wrong, and the rest of us who wanted nothing more than to win the Cup for the team we so dearly loved. I have so many great memories with this team but I will never forget the feeling of getting on the ice and celebrating our victory with my teammates.â€

In her two years on the American continent, Maximova had the chance to play with many players. She had nothing but good things to say about the players with whom she shared one of the most important part of her life, her Knights teammates.

â€œI really got along with Vanyaâ€¦ sorry, Ivan, from the beginning. Being both Russian, being both lost in America, made us pretty close early on. He is a very funny guy but at first no one but me could notice it because his English was freaking horrible. Now everyone can enjoy his jokes! Awesome! I am looking forward to winning medals for Russia with him.
Then, I need to mention Randy. He made me feel welcome right from the start. I did not understand everything in the SMJHL when I first arrived but he made everything a lot easier for me. I could not have wished for a better captain, and knowing I contributed in some way to help him win a championship in Kelowna before he moved up with the Dragons makes me very happy.
Thenâ€¦ Well, there is the most handsome man in the history of this league, Tony Flow. I am really glad we will be playing together again in West Kendall. Too bad you will not come up this year but I know it is just a matter of time before you prove you are as good a hockey player as you are handsome.
Lundy is another teammate I have to talk about. He arrived a bit after everyone else but he showed us from the beginning he really wanted to be a part of our family and now it feels like he joined the Knights at the same time as the other S24 draftees. Whenever I suggested doing something, he was always one of the first to agree to come along. What a great guy.
Vil is another awesome person from my draft class. He looks a bit weird but he is actually a very nice individual. He likes to make people believe heâ€™s a true Viking, with everything it implies, but he proved to be a great teammate and friend to all of us. I will miss our Viking adventures, that is for sure.
Now, the rooks. There are two of them that really stood out for me. Mainio and Christoffer. Mainio, you represent everything I love about this team. Team spirit, pride and fun. Christoffer, you doubted yourself at the beginning of the season and look at you now. We are champions in large part because of you. I am counting on both of you to keep the Knights tradition alive and to keep the Cup in Kelowna next season.

I almost forgot, Nik Scholz. We were Lions together, then we became Knights. It made me sad that you left us so early but seeing you have such an important role in Portland also makes me proud to know you. They are really lucky to have you and do not worry - Things will get better for you guys. You will be a great leader for this franchise for your entire career, I just know it.â€

While her teammates are awesome in every way, she also had some words to say on a few of her opponents:
â€œI had a lot of fun hanging out with the Taylors. It was awesome to have another girl in my draft class. Really glad Cynthia finally got her Russian citizenship and I look forward to sharing the ice with her. Our duo will be great! Patrikov, god your name sounds retarded but you are still a great guy and while I hate the Whalers with a passion, I would still pick you to be one of my teammates in that Beer League thing Randy organized any day.â€

â€¦ Isnâ€™t someone missing from this article? A rival, perhaps? Ever since joining the league, Maximova has been compared to one player. This fact pissed her off to the point where she dropped the gloves nearly once every ten games in her second season. Clayto, perhaps?

â€œClayto? Who...? Jasper? Oh, yeah. I think people are more excited about our â€œrivalryâ€ than we are. We are actually pretty good friends. He is a cool guy. Although I do enjoy getting better statistics than him, we respect each other a lot. He did get drafted before me, but I won a championship before him so I have that going for me, right?â€

<div align="center"> [Image: 30k6emg.png]

"Rivals" Maximova and Clayton didn't even fight once in their entire SMJHL career - booooo</div>
Maxi is now looking forward to start her career in West Kendall, especially with so many Knights alumni like Slappy McDoodle, Viktor Svensson and Captain Ales Smirnov, who is also her teammate with Team Russia. Her teammates Dr. Timeturner Whooves, Naeem Chamas and Tony Flow will also be joining her in Florida eventually.

Will her career in the SHL be as successful? Only time will tell. Maria Maximova leaves Kelowna proud of her time here and will look back at her junior years with great memories on her mind and a smile on her face.

<div align="center">Junior career statistics:

Regular Season
Season 25 - 50 games played | 11 goals | 28 assists | 39 points | 99 shots | 45 blocked shots | +3
Season 24 - 52 games played | 10 goals | 24 assists | 34 points | 76 shots | 32 blocked shots | +6

Playoffs
Season 25 - 17 games played | 5 goals | 6 assists | 11 points | 35 shots | 18 blocked shots | +6
Season 24 - 5 games played | 3 goals | 3 assists | 6 points | 10 shots | 7 blocked shots | +4

Russia

THANKS TO ALL MY TEAMMATES, THE KNIGHTS ALUMNI, MY GMS AND MY OPPONENTS FOR MAKING MY TIME IN THE SMJHL SO ENJOYABLE!</div>

Eggy216 · 10-08-2015, 11:23 PM

I have no rivalry with Maximova.

I have a rivalry with Scrubimova.

(:wub Smile

Ballerstorm · 10-08-2015, 11:27 PM

One of the truly great knights. WKP is so lucky to have you, gonna miss sharing an LR with you.

**Rich** · 10-08-2015, 11:27 PM

=D>

enigmatic · 10-08-2015, 11:33 PM

Quote:Originally posted by Ballerstorm+Oct 8 2015, 11:27 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='QUOTE-WRAP'><tr><td>QUOTE (Ballerstorm @ Oct 8 2015, 11:27 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>One of the truly great knights. WKP is so lucky to have you, gonna miss sharing an LR with you.[/b]

We can always chat in the rookies locker room :(

<!--QuoteBegin-Eggy's Multi@Oct 8 2015, 11:23 PM
I have no rivalry with Maximova.

I have a rivalry with Scrubimova.

(:wub Smile