RIGA — The KHL season has played on through the holiday season but someone forgot to tell Dinamo Riga, who have taken a holiday from playing well.

Dinamo Riga played three games through the Christmas period but managed to secure just one point from their three games, in an overtime loss at home to CSKA on Dec. 30. However, they will not be  completely disheartened, given that the games were against some of the tougher oppositions in the league and January’s schedule sees them taking on some lesser opponents.

The holiday season blues began for Dinamo Riga on Dec. 22 in Minsk in a rematch from eight days previous. Dinamo Riga had produced some of their better hockey to date to win the Dec. 13 game but everyone knew the assignment would be much tougher on the return leg.

Sure enough, with a number of players returning from an average showing for the Latvian national team, Dinamo Riga looked flat and never really looked like threatening. Miķelis Rēdlihs scored Dinamo Riga’s only goal of the night in the second period as they went down heavily 4-1.

Returning home on Christmas Day, the fans were given a present of sorts with the return of national hero Sandis Ozoliņš who had been laid of with injury for over a month. Their opposition came in the form of another Dinamo team, Dinamo Moscow. Another returning from injury was Mike Iggulden who marked his return in perfect style, scoring a rare goal early in the first period.

Unfortunately this was followed by five unanswered goals to Dinamo Moscow who were in complete command of the game with just over 18 minutes remaining. Dinamo Riga managed to rally late with goals to Gints Galvins, Marcel Hossa and finally Ozoliņš, but when Ozoliņš added his teams fourth, just seven seconds remained on the clock, ruling out any real chance of the game going in over-time.

For all their big names, Moscow’s CSKA have had a less than prosperous season, sitting just three teams above Dinamo Riga in the Western conference. Regardless of this, their big names performed on Tuesday evening as the guests took a commanding 2-0 lead into the final period.

After scoring goals in his first two KHL games, Lee Sweatt has had a long time between drinks so was visibly delighted to return to the score sheet when he claimed his team’s first less than 30 seconds into the final period. His goal was then followed by his team second at the opposite end of the period when Slovak veteran Robert Petrovicky added his team’s second with just over a minute remaining, insuring the game would move into over-time.

As the clock wound down in the over-time period, some among the Dinamo Riga team were already perhaps thinking of the penalty shoot-out when CSKA scored the heartbreaking goal to send Dinamo Riga packing.

Dinamo Riga will be hoping to begin the New Year on a better note than the one in which they finished this year when they take on Western conference cellar dwellers Metalurg Novokuznetsk on Sunday evening.