ASTANA, Kazahkstan — Dinamo Riga fired further warning shots at their competition ahead of the KHL playoffs.
In their penultimate regular season match Dinamo Riga humbled their favored opponents Baris 5-3, thanks mainly to a powerful first period.
Their form to date this year has been scintillating, winning 13 from 17 , enough to make other playoff participants to sit up and take notice. Dinamo Riga have gone from a team struggling to make the playoffs to a team that can now be considered amongst the real Gargarin Cup contenders, an argument supported by the fact that a number of their wins of late have come against teams with far superior records.
Baris had no answer for Dinamo Riga’s first period onslaught with the guests dominating early proceedings. It took Martins Cipulis less than two minutes to claim Dinamo Riga’s first of the night with Aleksandrs Nizivijs providing the assist. Ill discipline was to prove costly for Baris with Lauris Darzins claiming Dinamo Riga’s second on power play in the 8th minute. Rodrigo Lavins then assured Dinamo Riga kept a perfect record on power plays for the first period, adding his team’s 3rd in the 18th minute. The perfect period was completed by Mikelis Redlihs in the final few seconds, cleaning up the scraps in front of the Baris goal for his team’s 4th.
Baris being one of the first team’s to qualify for the finals was no fluke, and as expected they did not take long to answer back, catching Martins Pruseks of guard in goal in the 16th second of the second period. The goal certainly gave Dinamo Riga no reason to panic with their lead still more than healthy, and with Prusek showing that the goal had been nothing more than a slight lapse in concentration, repelling numerous attacks over the next ten minutes.
But with Dinamo Riga down to four men in the 13th minute, sustained pressure finally told with the hosts grabbing their second. Only one team this season has come back from more than four goals to win. That team was none other than Dinamo Riga. When Baris struck their third minutes later, some began to sense Dinamo Riga were about to get a taste of their own medicine.
However, they remained resolute and for the second game running, were able to take advantage to an empty net in dying minutes to inflate the score-line. On this occasion, it was new signing Martins Karsums who was on hand to add his name to the score sheet.
If Dinamo Riga are to hold their current 7th spot in the Western League, it will set them up a meeting with HK MVD in the first round of the playoffs, one team that has had a handle over Dinamo Riga all season. However, given their current form, Dinamo Riga certainly have the confidence to go all the way.
Their regular season comes to a close on Sunday when they take on top-of-the-table Salavat Julajev, who would be unwise not to give their opponents full respect going into the game.
