Voyage to Latvia successful for Traktor

Oleg Piganovich returned to the lineup for this game, taking his spot in the second D pair. Also, Aleksei Zavarukhin appeared in the lineup after a lengthy absence and was put in the second line with Mikhail Mokin and Francis Pare. Vasili Demchenko replaced Michael Garnett, who was feeling under the weather, in between the pipes.

The only head-to-head game of this regular season took place on September 17, 2014. The regulation ended with the tied score of one apiece, and the winner was determined in the shootouts. Kyle Wilson, who back then was a Traktor player, gave the black-and-white the win that evening.

The first twenty was a decent back-and-forth affair. The hero of the first few minutes was undoubtedly Vasili Demchenko who was able to turn aside several dangerous shots. Unfortunately, even Vasya could not save Traktor when Gints Meija found the back of the net with a nasty wrist shot to the top corner. Visitors were then able to respond with a handful of attacks. Stanislav Chistov tried to hit the near corner but failed; moments later Panov tried to organize himself a breakaway, but Riga D-man was able to take the puck away from Konstantin at the last second.

The second stanza began with a stiff hit from Maksim Kondratyev and a breakaway chance by Martin Ruzicka that did not pay off. This gave Traktor much needed momentum, and the black-and-white came up with three goals within six minutes. First, Francis Pare found the twine, hiding his shot from the goalie. Then, Konstantin Panov scored for the first time in a long time when Jeff Deslauriers stopped the shot from Piganovich, and Kostya was the first to pick up the puck off the rebound and transfer it into the net. Finally, Maksim Kondratyev turned a nice blue line slapper into the goal. Dinamo pulled one back before the break in a two-on-one situation; Demchenko almost overcame huge odds and stopped two shots, but was unable to do the same thing with the third one.

It was painfully obvious that Dinamo would start pushing the envelope right off the bat since they are fighting for the playoff spot on the West, and that was exactly how things went down. Dinamo created five or six scoring chances, but the black-and-white defended pretty well, and Demchenko’s goaltending was on par. As a result, in a five on six situation, one of the players of the night, Martin Ruzicka, secured the Traktor victory with an empty net goal. Four two, Traktor get a very important victory and, as the regular season is quickly wrapping up, approaches closer to fulfilling the goal of getting into the playoffs.

Game details

DINAMO Riga vs. TRAKTOR – 2:4 (1:0, 1:3, 0:1)
Goals: Meija (Jerofejevs), 13 (1:0); Pare, 27 (1:1); Panov (Piganovich, Ruzicka), 30 (1:2); Kondratyev (Ruzicka), 33 (1:3); Sotnieks (Abols, Meija), 36 (2:3); Ruzicka (Panov, Quint), 60 (2:4 – empty net goal).

DINAMO Riga
Deslauriers (0:00 – 58:27, 59:57 – 60:00);
K.Redlihs – Cibulskis, Bukarts – Videll – M.Redlihs;
Genoway – Porejs, Darzins – Wilson – Indrasis;
Sotnieks – Jerofejevs, Trotter – Dzerins – Meija;
Grinbergs, Saulietis – Bicevskis – Skvorcovs;
Abols.

TRAKTOR
Demchenko;
Quint – Borodkin, Penkovsky – Pestunov – Chistov (C);
Kondratyev – Piganovich, Pare – Zavarukhin – Mokin;
Martynov – Atyushov (A), Panov (A) – Osnovin – Ruzicka;
Davydov – Vasilchenko, Velichkin – Gubarev – Kokuyov.

PIM: 6 (0+4+2) – 6 (4+2+0).
Shots: 24 (6+7+11) – 22 (7+10+5).
Faceoffs won: 26 (5+11+10) – 20 (7+6+7).
Hits: 10 (2+3+5) – 10 (3+2+5).
Shots blocked: 5 (4+0+1) – 17 (6+7+4).
TOI: Genoway (23:57), K.Redlihs (23:50), Jerofejevs (21:46) – Quint (22:34), Kondratyev (19:57), Pestunov (19:43).
PP goals: 0-0.

Referees: Vladimir Bukin (Moscow Oblast), Yuri Tsyplakov (Saint-Petersburg).
Linesmen: Aleksei Medvedev (Moscow), Sergei Morozov (Moscow Oblast).

February 7, Arena Riga, Riga, Latvia. Attendance – 10020.

Photo courtesy of Dinamo Riga Press Office