Latvian Railways Cup: Riga sets up gold-medal showdown. August 24

Dinamo Riga made it three wins from three to set up a gold-medal showdown against Ak Bars when the Latvian Railways Cup concludes tomorrow. In Saturday’s other action, Lokomotiv downed Avtomobilist 3-0.

A tale of two Dinamos

Saturday’s program began with a clash between the Dinamos of Riga and Minsk. The teams were in contrasting form: Riga unbeaten here, Minsk struggling for wins anywhere in pre-season. Girts Ankipans chose to rest several of his leaders, giving a break to Carter Ashton and David Ullstrom. But even without their most productive players of the summer, the Latvians proved too strong for Minsk.

The game was settled in the third period when the host potted two unanswered goals. The home power play made a big impact, providing two of the three goals for Ankipans & Co.

Dinamo Riga 3 Dinamo Minsk 1 (1-0, 0-1, 2-0)

Goals: 1-0 Gillies (Marenis 13:06 PP); 1-1 Pavlenko (Stefanovich, Denisov 34:15); Jansons (Sotnieks, Marenis 42:02 PP); 3-1 Pazgals (Marshall 58:48, empty net).

Goalies: Tretiak – Enroth

First win for Lokomotiv

Neither Lokomotiv nor Avtomobilist had lived up to expectations at the Latvian Railways Cup. The Railwaymen had lost both their games, while Avto managed just one victory. Andrei Martemyanov sent out a strong roster, lacking only the injured forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Anatoly Golyshev. Loko also went with something close to a full-strength line-up and had Alexander Lazushin starting in goal.

The goalie went on to secure a shut-out as Loko sealed a comfortable win courtesy of one goal in each period. Three of the four lines found the net for Craig MacTavish’s team.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 0 (1-0, 1-0, 1-0)

Goals: Averin (Alexeyev, Kudryavtsev 12:27); 2-0 Rattie (Sannikov, Osipov 30:53 PP); 3-0 Ivanov (Kovalenko, Cherepanov 54:38)

Goalies: Lazushin – Kovar