JELGAVA, Latvia — It has been a mixed past five days for Dinamo Riga, winning two of its four games.
After four games on the road, Dinamo Riga were relishing the opportunity to return home to play in front of a home crowd. However, they failed to deliver going down 2-0 to visitors SKA from St. Petersburg. Already down 2-0 going into the final quarter, Dinamo Riga had all to play for, creating some strong chances without any luck.
In the context of the big picture, Dinamo Riga’s 3-2 win over visitors Severestal meant little, but for the Latvians it was the marking off their first home victory of the season. Dinamo Riga lead 1-0 following the first period courtesy of local hero Aleksandrs Nizivijs first goal of the season. Severestal came back in the second period through a goal to Alexander Sevahin. However Marcel Hossa was soon able to put the home-side back on top with a goal late in the period. Oleg Gubin scored eight minutes into the final quarter for the visitors assuring a tight finish to the game. Most thought the game was destined for over-time as time began to run out but with just six seconds left in the game, national hero Sandis Ozoliņš delivered the telling blow to see his team through to a 3-1 victory.
Friday’s victory was followed by another on Sunday when the Latvians dealt to Atlant 4-2. Dinamo Riga looked flat for the first two periods, which was reflected by the 2-0 deficit they faced going into the final quarter However, the Latvians came out a new team in the final period to play some of their best hockey this season to date. The fired up Latvians wiped Atlant of the rink scoring four unanswered goals to Nizivijs (two), Gints Meija and Guntis Galviņš.
Unfortunately Dinamo Riga could not continue on their winning ways on Tuesday evening when they travelled to Moscow to take on fellow Dinamos, Dinamo Moscow. A sloppy first period again cost Dinamo Riga as they conceded four goals. One goal in each of the following two periods to Hossa was never going to be enough to give Dinamo Riga a sliver of hope.
Dinamo Riga will stay on the road for their next match-up against Avtomobilist on Thursday evening. It’s a game that they will be targeting as a must win with Avtomobilist currently having the worst record in the league.
