MOSCOW — Dinamo Riga could not quite do enough to force extra time as they went down 4-2 to Avtomobilist on Thursday evening.
It should have been a relatively straight forward game for Dinamo Riga, considering the form to date of Avtomobilist. Again Dinamo Riga were on the backfoot going into the final period, and again they looked fragile at the back, particularly when the opposition are on power plays. At the other end when Dinamo Riga are enjoying the advantage of an extra man on the ice, they are more often than not failing to make anything of the advantage.
It was the 18th minute before any real action occurred in the first period. Unfortunately when the action did come it was not in Dinamo Riga’s favor. With Gints Meija given two minutes in the box, Avtomobilist were quick to take advantage of the power play, scoring through Igor Magogin on exactly the 18 minute mark.
Again in the second period Avtomobilist took advantage of having an extra man on the ice when Sandis Ozoliņš was given two minutes. This time it was Radik Philipp who scored for the home team. Just 35 seconds later as the nine-minute mark approached, Avtomobilist had a third courtesy of Aleksey Simakov, giving the home-side a healthy lead going into the final period.
Finally the roll of the dice began to work in Dinamo Riga’s favor in the third period. Finding themselves on their third power play of the period in just the fifth minute, Marcel Hossa converted (assist to Ozoliņš) to bring the gap back to two. It was soon back to one when Aleksandrs Ņiživijs added his team’s second (assist to Jānis Sprukts and Ozoliņš) with just under 13 minutes remaining. However try as they might, Dinamo Riga were unable to procure one more goal. Instead it was Avtomobilist who delivered the final blow when Oleg Antonenko scored his team’s fourth with 7 seconds left in the game.
Dinamo Riga will take some heart out of the final period performance, knowing that they will need to be on top of their game as they prepare to take on table-topping Metallurg on Saturday evening.
