Having gone on a short break to the Baltic countries I thought it made sense to take in a game at Riga. Dinamo were taking on Avangard Omsk while I was in town so I was lucky to be able watch the encounter.
There was some concern I might miss the game when I arrived to find the box-office was closed two hours before face-off. However, a very friendly local girl who spoke perfect English, better than mine in fact, had some tickets she was trying to sell and despite some suspicion they might be a scam trusted her and bought them anyway. As it turned out she was selling her parents batch of tickets and I wasn’t the only one to buy from her.
Not long after the arena opened its doors earlier than expected so I was able to take in the pre-game atmosphere inside the foyer before taking my seat and watching the warm-up. My seat was perfect, it was located about 8 rows behind the home team bench and so was able to get some great close-up photos of the Riga players.
Just before the opening face-off a group of guys arrived next to me, they were the same ones who bought tickets from the girl outside. After a while I got talking to them, and found out they were from Kazakhstan. They were temporarily based in Riga through work as they were Air-Traffic Control staff. Once again their English was spot on and it shames me to think that my Russian is nowhere near that kind of standard. But they were a great bunch of guys and made the game an even more enjoyable experience.
As is tradition in the KHL the national anthems of both sides were played before the start of the game. I can’t name a single anthem that is more moving or evocative than the Russian one. Contrast the boring and depressing one the UK has (God save the Queen), essentially a song about an old woman who I neither like or care about, to that of the Russian anthem which if I was about to go into a sporting event would have me fired up for sure.
With the puck dropped the game was under way and it was an entertaining contest despite the lack of goals. Both sides began slowly, but there wasn’t a wealth of scoring opportunities. The first real chance came in the seventh minute and fell to Colton Gillies whose first shot was blocked but the rebound fell to Petr Schastlivy who was unable to convert. Riga were then given their first powerplay opportunity a couple of minutes later but were unable to take advantage of that too.
Several more powerplay opportunities came their way and with three minutes left in the first, the Latvians had a great chance to open the scoring with some scintillating play but once again were unable to find the net.
Both sides would be a man light at the start of the second period setting up a 4-on-4 situation, with Dinamo probably having the better of the chances once again. Gints Meija had a good opportunity in front of the goal but couldn’t gather the rebound to give his side the lead, but on 25 minutes Colton Gillies did. The Canadian took a great shot which beat the Omsk goalie and finally Riga had the puck in the net that their play had so deserved. Riga very nearly made it 2-0 but a great save by Dominik Furch in the Avangard net prevented it and with that the game turned in the Omsk side’s favour.
The Russian team were back on level terms just one minute and 19 seconds later, when they broke on the counter attack and Maxim Pestushko scored. Omsk then took the lead on 32 minutes when a huge slap shot from the blue line, directly from a face-off from defenseman Andrei Kuteikin beat Riga goalie Janis Kalnins, giving him no chance such was the speed in which the shot was fired. It was an impressive strike by anyone’s standards and even drew applause from some of the home fans.
Avangard now held a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, despite an onslaught of attacks from the Rigan’s. Right after Avangard had scored, Riga looked the better side, and indeed played the better hockey. Tim Sestito had a great chance to tie the game but was unable to convert and again with three minutes remaining in the middle period, Gillies was left alone in front of goal but couldn’t hit the target.
The third period saw a series of penalties called on Dinamo which didn’t help their progress. At one stage they had to kill a 5-on-3 when first, Alexanders Jerofejevs and then Kaspars Saulietis, 24 seconds later was sent to the box. Avangard created a number of shots during that period, but Riga were disciplined and blocked everything that came their way, with Kalnins seemingly unbeatable in the goal.
With Riga finally back to full strength they could go on the attack themselves, as they looked for the equaliser. Mikelis Redlihs and Vitalijs Pavlovs had good opportunities to break out but again couldn’t tie the game.
With Riga pushing all out to tie the game it was leaving themselves exposed at the back. Kalnins was forced into making a great pad save from a dangerous looking shot by Anton Burdasov, but back came Riga who again dominated the next series of play. However, there was no way past Furch, who put in a confident display in the Omsk net and refused to give up any more rebounds. Riga controlled the puck in their opponents defensive zone for much of the remainder of the game before pulling Kalnins for the extra attacker. But ultimately they were unable to recover the one goal deficit.
On leaving the arena I got talking to some hockey fans from Canada and the States. Adrian who was originally from Calgary and his friend Jake from Hartford , USA. It’s a sizeable walk from the Arena back to the center of Riga so we were able to swap Hockey stories along the way back to the hotel. It’s moments like this which make me appreciate just what a great sport hockey is and how great it’s fans are, wherever in the world you are from. An English hockey fan such as myself getting to talk to people from Latvia and Kazakhstan in broken Russian, and then to Canadian and Americans about the 1991 Penguins team Mario Lemeiux and Ron Francis. Pretty good eh?
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