A couple of weeks ago, I was happy about the nine-game winning streak of the Liepāja team, which was surpassed by “Mogo” by one game, rising to the 2nd place in the tournament table. On the other hand, Liepāja, having not won in three matches out of the last four, are now only third, with “Zemgale” right next to them, with three games in reserve. Unfortunately, there are things that neither club coaches nor even referees can influence: Tallinn “Panter” has a flu virus, so the weekend games with “Zemgali” and Riga HS had to be canceled.
Already in the previous – 1:10 match in Pinkis against the “Capitals” from Tallinn, there were not three full shifts… only four defenders, one of whom (Luhtam) had only his 16th birthday in November. Logically, the advantage of the Capitals as a result and also during the game, shots: 68 -20 was huge. Being on the wave, the Kyiv team very convincingly settled with Liepāja – 6:2. The first two rounds in the majority (Honcharenko, Bajaruns) and the 16th minute is already 3-0. Jānis Voris, the current Latvian/Baltic Championship’s best goalkeeper, missed only two pucks out of 35. Mihals Valenta was less successful in the opposite goal – saving 39 pucks out of 45. But Voris has earned a call-up to the Latvian national team.
In the previous convocation – in November, the leader of the Liepāja attack Kārlis Ozoliņš was there, receiving the praise of the national team’s head coach Harijs Vītoliņš. Ozoliņš was also recognized as the MVP of the OHL for November, receiving the award from the hands of LHF general secretary Roberts Plūėjis before Wednesday’s match at the “Mogo” arena. For Ozoliņš, the “Mogo” hall was his home arena for six years, becoming the Latvian champion three times. It is possible that something will change by the end of the championship, but for now the Liepaja players have no trump cards when playing in the “Mogo” hall: at the beginning of October – 2:7, at the beginning of December – 4:7. Due to injuries, Liepaja team was missing several leaders (Niedrājs, Zīle, Sadausks, Vodlans), while “Mogo” had returned to the field after missing almost half of the regular championship (16 games). Together with Renarts Bēržinius, they formed the first pair of defenders, Renarts earning three assists, Krišjānis – two. This 7:4 was “Mogo’s” eighth win in a row, now we have to add 7:3 and 10:1 against Vilnius punks.
What to say about the table when the tournament equator is crossed? Four teams are jostling in the first quartet, for now the positions of “Prism” look quite safe, besides, Eddy Brahmanis returned to Imanta’s team after injury, throwing his regular puck in the 5-0 match in Elektrenes.
1. “Capitals” – 38 (21 games), 2. “Mogo” – 37 (23), 3. Liepaja – 34 points (23), 4. “Zemgale” – 32 (20), 5. “Prism” – 22 (20), 6. “Energija” – 13 (19), 7. “Panter” – 12 (22), 8. “Punk” – 8 (20), 9. Riga HS – 5 (18).
This week, with the national team break at the end, only three games in the OHL. “Prizma” will host “Energija” already on Tuesday, but on Thursday they will go to Vilnius for the punks. The third game is on Sunday in Tallinn between “Panter” and “Energija”, if the flu outbreak is over for the Estonians.
Jānis MATULIS
