Dinamo Riga finish second in Switzerland

RIGA - Dinamo Riga has had what can be considered a successful interlude to the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) regular season, finishing second in the Spengler Cup, played in Davos, Switzerland over the Christmas period.
Dinamo Riga became the fourth KHL team in as many years to take part in the traditional Christmas tournament – considered by many as the oldest invitational hockey tournament in the world – which in its current format sees host team HC Davos invite five other teams, which includes a team of European-based Canadians to come and participate in the one-week tournament.
In pool play, the Riga-based club was grouped alongside German club Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams and Swiss club Kloten Flyers.

Playing in their opening match against the Flyers on Boxing Day, Dinamo Riga recorded one of their most comprehensive victories in recent memory, easily seeing off their rivals 9-2, sealing the game with five goals in a seven minute flurry early in the deciding third period.

Girts Ankipans and Martins Cipulis, two players who have struggled to find the back of the net in the KHL to date this season, both received a boost of confidence with two goals apiece.
Two days later, on the 27th, the maroons returned to the ice confident of moving directly into the semifinals as they prepared to take on Grizzly Adams, a side that only a day previous had been thumped 6-0 by the Flyers.
Opting to give Chris Holt a rest in goal and instead play Maris Jucers, Pekka Rautakallio was not to be disappointed by his young goalie, who may have only been slightly disappointed with himself for failing to secure a shutout by allowing Grizzly Adams to score with six minutes remaining.

However, it would have no effect on the outcome with Dinamo Riga making it two-for-two, winning 3-1.
Ankipans would pick up his third goal of the tournament, whilst Roberts Bukarts and Fredrik Warg would chip in with one apiece.

In the semifinals on Dec. 30, Latvia’s top club team would once more surprisingly meet Grizzly Adams, who had shocked everyone an evening previous by knocking out the Canadians, 3-2, following a shootout.
Canada disappointed in the tournament, winning just one of three games. Most had predicted prior to the tournament to see them facing off against Dinamo Riga in the final.

After scaring Dinamo Riga early by going ahead 1-0 in the 12th minute, the Latvians recovered well, tying the game up before the end of the opening period before Martins Karsums added two goals in the second frame and then Jamie Lundmark added one in the final to see Rautakallio’s men victor, 4-1.

It was a particularly memorable game for forward Maris Bicevskis, who picked up his first goal for Dinamo Riga.
On New Year’s Eve Dinamo Riga faced off against host club Davos in the tournament final.
However, it would not turn out to be the end to the year that the Latvian club would have been hoping for as they went behind by two goals early on and, as has been a problem throughout the season to date for the Sandis Ozolins-captained side, they would not be able to recover from their early errors.

Lundmark offered his team a glimmer of hope when Cipulis set him up in the second minute of the second period, but just after the halfway mark in the game was eclipsed, Davos once more gave themselves some breathing space with their third goal.

In the final seconds of play, Niclas Lucenius would bring the final score back to a goal on a fine individual effort, but ultimately it was the home fans who had more to celebrate when New Years arrived soon after the completion of play.
Given the ease that Dinamo Riga moved through to the final in, their second placing only once more reiterates just how strong the standard of competition in the KHL is, despite the league still only being in its fourth season. Prior to Dinamo Riga, fellow KHL teams Dinamo Moscow, Dinamo Minsk and SKA St. Petersburg have all competed in and won the tournament.

Dinamo Riga are now back home refocusing on the KHL regular season with the club beginning a three-game home stretch, when they host Spartak on Thursday evening.

With 35 games of the 56-game KHL regular season behind them, the Baltic country’s only KHL team is sitting in a relatively strong position, as they currently lie seventh in the Western Conference, 11 points clear of the cutoff line, with the top eight teams from the division qualifying for the playoffs which begin in March.