RIGA — Dinamo Riga have gone down 2-1 in their latest KHL home game to one of the leading teams, Moscow’s MVD Monday.
In recent games Dinamo Riga have had Lady Luck on their side but unfortunately she completely evaded the home side last night. On numerous occasions, particularly in the last period, fans and players alike were left scratching their heads as to how the puck was not going into the back of the net.
Plenty was on the line for Latvia’s players with the middle Baltic state’s national coach Oleg Znarok is also coaching MVD. With a friendly game coming up against Denmark next month, not to mention the Olympics in February, the mainly Latvian team were using the game as a trial of sorts as they attempted to impress Znarok.
Unfortunately for Dinamo Riga, none of the players took the opportunity to shine with no one having a particularly strong game. Jānis Sprukts and Alexandrs Ņiživijs looked solid whilst Martin Kariya’s quick skating stood out on more than one occasion but unfortunately they did not receive the support from their team mates, particularly their defensive lines who had very ordinary games. Both of MVD’s goals came from Dinamo Riga’s inability to clear the puck out of their zone.
Dinamo Riga's Oļegs Sorokins (28) does his best to get between MVD's Denis Kokarev (19) and Dinamo Riga goalie Edgars Masaļskis (31) to clear the puck from the goal area. Masaļskis ended up letting two goals get by in the loss at home Monday evening. Photo used courtesy of Dinamo Riga.
The first period was a rather dour affair with neither team creating many opportunities or making much of those which they did have. MVD looked a lot more in control when they had the puck, passing it calmly amongst themselves with time to spare whilst in contrast Dinamo Riga looked hurried and unsettled with too many pucks failing to find their marks and players not taking opportunities when they presented themselves. The 0-0 deadlock was finally broken in the 17th minute by Denis Kokarev when Dinamo Riga’s defense failed to pick him up open in front of the goal.
Dinamo Riga came close early in the second period skating against the power play but unfortunately could not finish off a one on one opportunity against MVD goalie Michael Garnett. They then found themselves falling further behind in the eighth minute, again courtesy of some weak defence with Denis Mosalev scoring from the third deflection of Edgars Masaļskis.
Finally the 8,230 strong crowd were given something to cheer about just after the half-time mark in the game when Mārtiņš Cipulis connected perfectly on to a well timed pass from Ņiživijs. Cipulis made no mistake at firing the puck home past a defenseless Garnett. As the end of the period approached Dinamo Riga again had an opportunity to score against a power play but again the finishing touch evaded him.
The final period provided more action than the previous two combined without actually producing a goal. The crowd spent as much time out of their seats as they did in them as their beloved Dinamo Riga kept coming agonizingly close to finding the equalizer. Back to back power-plays late in the game were also not enough to assist Dinamo Riga with the puck simply refusing to find its way into the back of the net.
Arnason a disappointment
Latest import American Tyler Arnason again failed to shine in his third outing for Dinamo Riga. The first two games could be put down to attempting to fit into a new system but after a third outing he shows no signs of improving.
Arnason was lethargic on the ice, with seemingly no desire to assist on defense and little desire to spend time on the ice. He has worked his way into the second line but he is still consistently rating amongst the least minutes played on the night.
Perhaps the release of Canadian Adrian Foster, after showing a reasonable amount of promise in his trial period, was a mistake after all. The reason given by the coaching staff at the time was that they could not see Foster working his way into the first two lines and did not want one of their foreign stars playing in the latter two lines when they could be better off using the position as the chance to develop one of their farm club players.
Now Dinamo Riga have gone and signed Arnason for the season without a trial period and at this stage he does not look any better than the farm club players. With no reason given yet as to why he was released from his NHL contract with New York Rangers earlier this month but plenty of rumours floating around of alcohol issues, it looks as if Dinamo Riga may have landed themselves with a dud.
The game was also followed with more bad news with their inspirational captain Sandis Ozoliņš potentially out for the rest of this year with an elbow injury. This is on top of the injury to Robert Petrovicky who missed last night’s game and it is not likely to take the ice for the next two weeks.
Dinamo Riga will now endure their toughest road trip of the season facing four of the leading teams over the next week, starting CKA in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
