Elmars Bauris celebrates 90!

One of the most influential Latvian forwards in 20th century Elmars Bauris today is celebrating his 90th birthday. He had a great speed, technique, he was fearless and very effective in scoring goals. He played for Dinamo Riga from 1946 to 1956. In year 1954 he was ranked 4th in Soviet Championship in scoring goals. Tomorrow in 1st October he will receive cheers in the game between Dinamo Riga and Dinamo Moscow. He is the one of players which has to be memorialized in Arena Riga alongside with Helmuts Balderis, because he has contributed to Latvian hockey very much.

Dinamo Riga has signed Sergejs Pecura!

Dinamo Riga has signed a two-way contract with 21 year old Latvian Sergejs Pecura. Last season he has played for ASK/Ogre in Latvian Championship netting 25 goals and 17 assists in his 42 games. Also he played last season for Latvian national U-20 junior team netting 4 goals and 3 assists in 5 games. He is a great addition to Dinamo Riga, as I see him as future regular in the team, currently he has to prove him self in Dinamo Riga farmclub Riga2000.

Dinamo Riga - Dinamo Moscow, game preview

Dinamo Riga VS Dinamo Moscow
01.10.2008
Game 12

Dinamo Moscow is one of the most successful teams in Russian hockey history, it has won four Soviet and four Russian championship titles, most recent was in year 2005 also they won 2006 IIHF Europian Champions Cup . This season they are showing good results, they are currently at the top-half of the table with 4 Wins, 3 Overtieme Wins and 3 Loses averaging 2.9 goals for and 2.3 goals against in 10 games. Most dangerous players currently are - Alexei Zhitnik (Defence) with 3G 2A 5Pts, Dmitry Afanasenkov (Forward) with 2G 6A 8Pts, Maksim Pestushko(F) with 5G 1A 6Pts, Ivan Nepryayev(F) with 1G 5A 6Pts. Also notable is they'r goalie Vitaliy Yeremeyev that currently has 2.18 Goals Agains Avarege(GAA).

This will be the first game between Dinamo Riga and Dinamo Moscow in KHL history, in Soviet Union times Dinamo Moscow has almoast everytime finished higher then Dinamo Riga in the end of the season. This game we can call a derby between Dinamo teams also in this Dinamo club derby participates Dinamo Minsk from Belorussia. Now Dinamo Riga has all opertunities to be a best team between Dinamo clubs, I hope for a win in longtime run, because in reality that Dinamo Riga can beat strongest teams and at the same time lose to weakest, so Dinamo Riga is unpredictible, I am glad that they are in top-half at the table, I am hoping for play-off's. As for this game..., as I earlier mentioned Dinamo Riga has weaker squad then in pre-Moscow tour, out of order is our first gaolkeeper Edgars Masalskis, and forward Juris Stals. Without them Dinamo Riga has made a surprising tour with snatching 5 points from 9. Of course I am hoping for the win, but we have to be also prepared for the lose, because that is what most in common will happen. I hope all hockey Gods will be with our defence and Sergejs Naumovs today. Broadcast to the game you will find here..., hopefully or in sportbox.ru.

Game review you will find on 2nd october, because I will have tomorrow(1st october) my 20th birthday.

Should Helmuts Balderis be memorialized?

Post is a about a player who has done more then most of the hockey players, his name is Helmuts Balderis. He is the best player in history of Latvia, he won many major trophies, such as MVP of Soviet League (1977), was named as best forword in World Championship (1977), has won Izvestia Trophy as top league scorer (1977, 1983) and other. He has scored 333 goals in Soviet League, he also played many years for Soviet Union. More about his stats you can find out here. I am surprised that Helmuts Balderis has not been memorialized in reastablished Dinamo Riga, well it is just a start of the season, but in my opinion this should be done already in first home game in the season, the CSKA Moscow, where Helmuts Balderis have played 3 seasons, has already stated that Helmuts Balderis will be memorialized in the Universal Sport Hall. So why not Dinamo Riga do the same, the place where Helmuts Balderis has played for 15 seasons?

Feel free to leave a comment below.

Dinamo Riga penalty box and defence problems

Head coach Július Šupler has to think about team behaviour on the ice, because Dinamo Riga currently has most short-handed times in the league(71), that has leaded to concerning 11 goals this season in 11 games, 3rd lowest rank in KHL, that is 1.00 goal per game when Dinamo Riga player is in the penalty box. If this will continue then I think when Dinamo Riga woun't be so hockey God beloved and woun't get in to the play-off's, it does not matter if team has great attack, but defencive aspect lacks. In my opinion Dinamo Riga managment has within discipline improvement also get two new stable DD(Defensive Defenseman) players for the same price that Dinamo Riga was hoping to get Sandis Ozolinsh. I am a big fan of Sandis, Ozolinsh but he just does not fit in the team, why does Dinamo need OD(Offensive Defenceman) if it has serious troubles with defence? I think that Rodrigo Lavins and Olegs Sorokins has to be replaced, as they are weakest links in the team, in my opinion. They are great guy's, both leaders in the locker room, but unfortunatly not on the ice. Anyway I hope that next games will be more disciplined from Dinamo Riga side and board will think over about Dinamo defence improvement.

Moscow Tour Review

CSKA Moscow VS Dinamo Riga
3:4
22.09.2008
Game 9

Game against CSKA was pretty enjoyable, also result was good for Dinamo Riga, despite Dinamo Riga injury problems. Edgars Masalskis was beaten on the street after he had careless after-game party with his teammates celebrating last games win, also Atvars Tribuncovs was injured, he had before the game groin injury. Masalskis was replaced by Sergei Naumov who played in the Belorussian Open Hockey Championship with Masalskis in same league last season. Naumovs was a stable backup goalie, who had a bad game earlier this season 4 GA in 32 minutes against Metallurg Novokuznetsk, then he was replaced by Masalskis who letted in 3 pucks in his net. So before the game I was not so sure about the win tho knowing that CSKA now is not the team who was back in Soviet times. The game started at moderate temp, at the start more attacks had CSKA, so I almost had to close my eyes before every CSKA attack, knowing that Naumovs is in the net, but despite that after few minutes(9 min.) Ronald Petrovicky putted Dinamo in front with nice rebound shot. After that CSKA had few dangerous attacks that had must ended in tieuping the game... but no...Dinamo Riga scored again with great speedy Mikelis Redlihs counter-attack ending the first period with 2-0 lead. At the start of second period CSKA had some more dangerous attacks. After 30 minutes Dinamo were shorthanded, CSKA had some great attacks but with no result and again with great counter-attack Marcel Hossa scored an shorthanded beauty. After 10 minutes Naumovs letted in a goal which had scored Parshin after that another one scored Kornev. After that Moscow still putted a lot of pressure on Dinamo Riga net but Naumovs had some great saves. At the start of the third period after great Viktors Blinovs pass goal scored Juris Stals and that was another counter-attack by Dinamo Riga. At the 49th minute CSKA scored again. Now it was 3:4 and Dinamo Riga got a lot of pressure from CSKA Moscow, but Dinamo Riga managed to hang on to the win. I was surprised that in last minute of the game CSKA's goalie was not changed for the 6th player...strange Bikov tactics were. Great game for both teams and also lucky one for Dinamo.

CSKA Moscow - Dinamo Riga 3:4 (0:2, 2:1, 1:1)
Goals 8:57 0:1 Petrovicky (Blinovs, Stals), 17:47 0:2 Redlihs (Darzins), 23:19 0:3 Hossa (Ellison, SH), 29:20 1:3 Parisin (Misarin, PP), 38:44 2:3 Kornjev (Misarin), 42:36 2:4 Blinovs (Stals), 48:57 3:4 Scaslivij (Rozin, Hannula).
Shots on goal: 32:20

Spartak Moscow VS Dinamo Riga
5:1
24.09.2008
Game 10

Sadly, but this game was not translated here in Latvia, I followed this game using online live-text, so I can't give you a much of a review. I was hoping that Dinamo will have 5th straight victory, also Naumovs had proven himself in my eyes, so I was hoping for the best. As I know Dinamo Riga had some good chances, but Spartak Moscow was putting on really good presure on Dinamo Riga, with they'r stile of the play and dangerous shots on the goal. So my expectation went out of window.

Spartak Moscow – Dinamo Riga 5:1 (1:0, 3:1, 1:0)
Goals 12:31 Akimov (Levandovski) 1:0, 23:08 Akifjev (Akimov, Levandovski) 2:0, 28:16 Baranka (Radiojevic, Lamin PP.) 3:0, Levandovski (Drozdecki SH.) 4:0, Hartigan (Nizivijs, Sorokins PP.) 4:1, 58:15 Ribin (Uper) 5:1.

Shots on goal: 33:24

Vityaz Chekhov VS Dinamo Riga
2:3
26.09.2008
Game 11

I had expected this game for some time, because Dinamo Riga and Vityaz Chekhov are currently the dirties teams in league, I hoped for some 'action'. For a despite Vityaz's two dirtiest players were disqualified for this game, because they had a massive fight in last game. This game was not televised second time in a row *angry*, so again...live-text. Well I was sure hoping for a victory, because Vityaz was at that time the second worst team in the league. As I saw in live-text Dinamo had some behaveior problems in first period and Vityaz near the end of the period scored Dinamo Riga for punishment a goal 1-0, after that Vityaz played aggressive hockey and was trying to provocate Dinamo. Before end of the second period Mark Hartigan tied the game. Starting third period some anger managment problems had also Duvie Westcott and Vityaz's Spailo, both had a fight, last of them received 10+4 minutes. These 4 PP minutes Dinamo used very well resulting in Marcel Hossa's 9th goal of this season, after legionares Novak's and Ellison's assists. Well I thought when that is victory for Dinamo, but no... rough guy Spailo had scored a goal in one minute befor the end buzzer. So game was in to the overtime where it had costed no results in scoring and now we were at shootout, where only goal scored was by Dinamo's Aleksandrs Nizivijs. A great game, sad that this game was not broadcasted here in Latvia.

Vityaz Chekhov – Dinamo Riga 2:3 (1:0, 0:1, 1:1, 0:0, 0:1)
Goals: 13:09 Spailo (Golc, Grisin) 1:0, 38:19 Hartigan (Sorokins) 1:1, 41:44 Hossa (Novak, Ellison PP.) 1:2, 58:29 Spailo (Sapazkov, Megalinskij) 2:2, 65:01 Nizivijs 2:3.

Shots on goal: 40-33

To recap - 5 points in 3 games was better result then I expected. Naumovs showed in these games when he can replace Masalskis, I don't think that Masalskis would do any better in these games.

Next game there will be a against Dinamo Moscow, that clashes with my birthday-1.10.2008, I will have 20th birthday, I hope that Dinamo Riga will give me a good present! :)

Their will be a preview on 30.09 and review on 02.09 about this game on this blog.

P.S Sorry for my bad grammar.

P.S.S More game photos you can view on official Dinamo Riga homepage or Sportbox.ru. Follow link to the right.

History of Dinamo Riga

Dinamo Riga roots are found in 1946, Dinamo Riga was one of eleven teams which participated in the first Soviet championship in season of 1946/1947. Dinamo Riga finished in fourth place behind Dynamo Moscow, CSKA Moscow and Spartak Moscow, making it the highest team based outside Moscow. Dinamo Riga is also notable because it was first team in history of hockey that used four lines(12+8) instead of three lines, like in the rest of the world at that time. In year 1948 the Soviet Union participated for the first time in World Championship and Dinamo Riga player Harijs Mellups was the first goalie that has participated in this historic first Soviet Union game in World Championship. In 1975, Viktor Hatulev of Dinamo Riga became the first ice hockey player from the Soviet Union drafted by the National Hockey League by Philadelphia Flyers in round 9 #160 overall. He never had a chance to play for the NHL, as the Soviet players were not allowed to play for foreign teams, so basically Philadelphia Flyers had wasted their draft choice. In season 1976-77 legendary Dinamo Riga star Helmuts Balderis was the leading scorer, had the most goals, and won the best player of the season award (MVP). He was also the goal leader in 1975-76 and leading scorer in 1983. He scored 333 goals in his Soviet Union League career, also he was oldest player(36) ever drafted by NHL team in hockey history. In season 1986/87 Latvian star Arturs Irbe has started his professional career in Dinamo Riga, he was first Latvian who had played in NHL, also notable players that had played for Dinamor Riga which were drafted by NHL teams and played some games for them were Sandis Ozolinsh, Sergei Zholtok, Harijs Vitolinsh, Aleksander Kerch, Grigorijs Pantilejevs. Dinamo Riga has participated in 1989 Superseries against NHL teams. The NHL teams won a series against Dynamo Riga with 5 wins, 1 tie, 2 losses. The scores were:

• Dinamo Riga tied the Calgary Flames 2 to 2
• Edmonton Oilers beat Dinamo Riga 2 to 1
• Vancouver Canucks beat Dinamo Riga 6 to 1
• Dinamo Riga beat Los Angeles Kings 5 to 3
• Chicago Blackhawks beat Dinamo Riga 4 to 1
• St. Louis Blues beat Dinamo Riga 5 to 0
• Dinamo Riga beat Minnesota North Stars 2 to 1
• Washington Capitals beat Dinamo Riga 2 to 1.

Dinamo Riga - Calgary Flames game highlights:

Also other soviet teams played in these series. Total there were 108 games, Soviet teams won 58 games, NHL teams 40, ties 10. These games showed strengths between the Soviet Union League clubs and NHL clubs.

After the end of Soviet Union, the team continued to play until 1995 as a member of the International Hockey League, the successor of Soviet Hockey League. During this period, the team was called Stars Riga and later, Pārdaugava Riga. In these teams have played players like Aigars Cipruss, Viktor Ignatjev, Aleksander Semjonov, Akeksandrs Belavskis Latvian national team record holder Leonids Tambijevs and others. In first years of Latvian national team most of the national team players were from these teams and of course from Dinamo Riga.

In April 7, 2008 the club has been re-established, it was re-established because Latvian Hockey Federation received invitation from Kontinental (Continental) Hockey League (KHL) so in Latvia based team could participate in KHL in it's first seson. Latvian former president Guntis Ulmanis, Viesturs Koziols, former Latvian prime minister Aigars Kalvitis alongside with other people decided to establish new club in Latvian capital Riga to make some business out of this project. At first nobody knew the name of the new club, so board of the new club decided that there must be voting to decide the club name for the hockey club. Latvian citizens who were interested in this porject voted for these names. Most common names in voting was Daugava Riga, Latvijas Berzs and of course Dinamo Riga. Most votes were given to Dinamo Riga, so we can say in our days that former Dinamo Riga has been re-established. In 15. July started official training camp for Dinamo Riga, the first players were contracted at the time when Latvian national team participated in World Championship in Canada year 2008. Dinamo Riga has a long history, that is over 60 years long.

Buy Dinamo Riga Hockey Jersey

Many people are complaining that they can't find a place to buy Dinamo Riga jerseys and yes there is currently no place to buy them, only time and place to buy them is in Dinamo Riga home game time, if you are interested in fan jersey. But you have an ultra rare opportunity to get real authentic game jerseys that are been used in real live KHL games.

Listing of all Jerseys is HERE.

Happy bidding!

Jerseys:

This is a Dinamo Riga fan jersey currently you can only buy it in Arena Riga, in game time, there is no other possibility, I think that these jerseys are currently no more as 1000 available currently, so you can consider them as rare, if you need one, buy it from us in auction - new, never unpacked, directly from Arena Riga.

Real Dinamo Riga game jerseys will be added later.

I only accept payments through PayPal, winning bidder will have to pay 15$ for s+h if you live outside Europe, 10$ if you live in Europe, shipping is worldwide, shipment is being made from Latvia, you will receive your jersey in 2-3 week time, even if you live in Japan. Payment must be made within 48 hours!

If there are any questions or special wishes, then you are welcome to contact us: dinamorigablog@gmail.com