Riga “Dinamo” victory series breaks against Minsk club

“Dinamo” gave up Minsk “Dinamo” at home with 2: 6 (1: 3, 0: 2, 1: 1), ending the series of two won games.

Rihards Bukarts and Miks Indrašis scored in the Riga team.
The fifth mutual match of the season was started more successfully by the guests, who already in the first minute revealed the result of the game. After winning the throw, the puck quickly reached the blue line to Stephan Falkovsky, whose strong broadcast flew over Ivan Nalimov’s left shoulder. Less than three minutes later, the people of Riga got a chance to play in the numerical majority. The home team was able to stand in the opponent’s defense zone and also made several shots on the goal, but without a tangible result.

Towards the middle of the first period, the pressure exerted by the Minsk team allowed to reach 2: 0. The people of Riga were unable to get the puck outside their defense zone for a long time, which was used by Ilya Solovyov. After less than eight minutes of play, Naļimovs was able to repel only one of the three shots, taking his place in the goal of Jānis Vori.

In the ninth minute of the game, the majority for the Riga club was earned by Mārtiņš Dzierkals, but the Bukarti brothers took care of its realization. Robert scored in front of Richard, who scored 1: 2. Shortly afterwards, the home team was already four men – Voris saved the team from the loss of the goal, but the former resident of Riga Zeks Michels fell on his leg. The goalkeeper’s grimaces didn’t hide the pain, but Voris was ready to continue the game. By the end of the first period, the guests stood out once more, realizing a numerical majority. Ryan Spooner scored from the goal, but Shein Prince was the first to jump off the puck.

At the beginning of the second period, the people of Riga said goodbye to the debutant of this season Andris Džeriņš, who pushed the opponent in a duel, the Minks hit the edge strongly with their heads. The judges later gave Jerry a 5 + 20 minute penalty, so the game was over for the center striker.

A five-minute minority paid the Riga goal a lost goal. In the sixth minute, Pavel Varfomolejev performed an accurate throw over Vora’s shoulder from the throw-in circle, achieving a three-goal lead – 4: 1. Five minutes before the end of the second third, Roman Gorbunov broke into the goal of Vora, but was stopped by Kristaps Zīle due to a violation of the rules. It took the team captain Prince only ten seconds to reach 5: 1.

In the fourth minute of the third third, the Rigans were entitled to play in the majority, but Michel beat Robert Bucharest with his elbow shortly afterwards. The “big majority” of Rigans repeatedly threatened the opponents’ goal and once heard the sound of the goal post, but the result remained unchanged. 6: 1 After eight minutes, the Minsk team managed to get Vladislav Jerjomenko from the blue line to the goal in the upper left corner.

About seven minutes before the end of the game, Daniels Bērziņš waved his fists with Vladimir Aristov, but the judge gave the player of the Minsk team a 2 + 5 minute penalty for initiating a fight. Immediately afterwards, Indrašis stood out in the majority with a shot. By the end of the match, the home team could play twice more, but failed to score a third goal, interrupting a series of two games they won.

This was the second home game for Rigans this year, but two more matches in Riga on January 9 and 12 are scheduled for Yaroslavl “Lokomotiv” and Moscow CSKA.

Last year ended on a positive note, on the penultimate day of the year, the Moscow “Spartak” led by Oleg Znarok and Latvian specialist Harijs Vītoliņš won 5: 2. This interrupted a series of six lost games in which he managed to score two points. Meanwhile, in the last game, which was the first this year, the “Dynamics” won Moscow’s “Dynamo” 5: 4.

For the first time this season, the Riga team managed to achieve two successes in a row, but the head coach Pēteris Skudra indicated after the game that he is satisfied with the performance of the players, because he managed to score five goals in the regular time.

Meanwhile, the Minsk team ended last year with a loss against Nizhny Novgorod “Neftehimik”, which was 5: 4, but this year has already achieved two successes – overtime 5: 4 and 4: 3, respectively, beat Omsk “Avangard” and St. Petersburg SKA.

Before Thursday’s duel, the two teams have already met four times this season. In the first meeting at the beginning of the season, the Rigans won the bulls 4: 3, but the other hockey players were dominated by Minsk hockey players. In the KHL championship, both clubs have met 48 times, of which in 21 cases the Riga team has won.

Rigans have gaps in the goal and defense. Goalkeeper Stanislav Galimov is still on the list of injured in the league, defenders – Jordan Murray and Tony Sund. Also, the defender Ilya Shinkevich and the strikers Brendon Kozun, as well as Dmitry Buinicki did not play in the Minsk club due to injuries.

The biggest loss is definitely Kozuna’s absence, as the Canadian has scored 16 goals and 12 assists in 30 games this season.

The Riga club with 21 points in 41 games takes the last place in the league, while the Minsk team with 51 points in 42 games in the Western conference takes the fifth position.

“Dinamo” took the penultimate place in the Western group and in the whole league last season, not qualifying for the Gagarin Cup for the sixth year in a row.