Stanley Visits Red Square Russian Stars Of Cup Champion Red Wings Take Trophy Home

Standing in the middle of Red Square Sunday, Yuri Shersnov, a visitor from Belarus, raised the Stanley Cup above his head and let out a triumphant “I am the champion” as throngs pushed their way through to see hockey’s most prestigious trophy and the Russian stars who brought it to their homeland.

Shersnov was waiting with his wife, Galina, and 9-year-old daughter Alesya to enter Lenin’s mausoleum when he saw Detroit Red Wings stars Vyacheslav Fetisov, Igor Larionov and Vyacheslav Kozlov displaying the shiny silver Stanley Cup.

Leaving the line, Shersnov followed the hockey players in hopes of touching one of the sporting world’s most famous trophies. “Sport really brings us together,” he said with a gleam in his eye.

The hockey players, three of the group that has come to be known as the Russian Five on the Red Wings, who won this year’s Stanley Cup, brought the 104-year-old trophy to Russia for the first time. The Stanley Cup arrived in Moscow Saturday, in keeping with the tradition of allowing players on the winning team to take it home during the summer.

Today it is scheduled to appear before thousands of fans - including President Boris Yeltsin - at an exhibition soccer game.

The hockey stars put only minor emphasis on their nationality in the United States. But their roots were evident on this unusually cold and windy summer day as they emerged with the trophy before St. Basil’s Cathedral and were photographed on the steps of the platform from which the Russian Czars’ edicts were read.

“It’s very nice to see the Russian people around us,” said Larionov as he walked through Red Square with the cup.

Fetisov’s father, Aleksander Fetisov, stood apart from the crowd with a tear in his eye. “I am very proud because now Slava has all the hockey trophies there are to have,” he said. Slava Fetisov, who also brought the Olympic gold and silver medals he had won with the Soviet Olympic team, said the greatness of the moment was in the eyes of the people in Red Square.