Russian teen Tkachkov learning English, hockey with RoughRiders

CEDAR RAPIDS - There's this thing called Google Translate. You type a word in one language, and it gives you the equivalent in another.

'Here, let me show it to you,” Mark Carlson said Wednesday.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders Coach/General Manager knows all about the app, though he doesn't use it much anymore. He doesn't have to because Pavel Tkachkov speaks very good English these days.

Classes at Kirkwood Community College have allowed the 16-year-old forward from Moscow, Russia, to learn the language. His progress is especially impressive when you consider he came here in late August unable to speak or read it at all.

'No English,” Tkachkov confirmed. 'First time, very difficult. But I go to classes here, just English classes, and it is helping so much.”

'That's how I learned about this Google Translator,” Carlson said. 'I remember he came over for dinner one of his first days here, and we used it all night. It really helps at first, but then it's one of those things that you almost have to take away.”

The Riders, who close the pre-holiday portion of their schedule with games Friday and Saturday nights at Muskegon, used 'some of our connections” to bring Tkachkov to Cedar Rapids. He hasn't played regularly (a goal and three assists in 12 games), though that will change with a recent shoulder injury to forward Liam Walsh that will shelve him for the rest of the season.

'It's been very good here,” Tkachkov said. 'My (adviser) back home said ‘Do you want to go to the USHL and try to make team?' I said yeah. He said this was a very good league, that every day I can improve. It's good for me.”

Tkachkov's ultimate goal is to make it to the National Hockey League, which is why he made the difficult decision to leave home and move so far away at such a young age. If that doesn't materialize, he hopes to play someday in Russia's Kontinental Hockey League.

By the way, his father is a manager at an electronics shop in Moscow, his mother a dispatcher for a taxi company. Tkachkov said the thing he misses most about home is his mom's borscht (beet soup).

'For me, it is different hockey from back home,” he said. 'The first time, I didn't know what I needed to do. Now I'm more comfortable. I think I am a better player.”

'I think he has handled things great,” Carlson said. 'He has worked to learn English, taking that class at Kirkwood. He has worked hard on the ice. He's a young, young player, but I think he's handled things great here.”

With Walsh's injury and four prominent players out while participating in the World Junior ‘A' Challenge tournament in Canada, the RoughRiders have brought in a pair of defensemen for the weekend.

Chase Danol, 16, has been temporarily promoted from the club's affiliate roster of younger players. He has been playing for Victory Honda AAA in suburban Detroit.

Jake Houston also will join the RoughRiders. He has been playing for Amarillo of the North American Hockey League.

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