Dinamo Riga (1940-1995)

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Dinamo Riga
Dinamo Riga
Greatest successes
  • Promotion to the first Soviet division in 1973
  • Soviet runner-up in 1988
Club information
history Dinamo Riga (1940–1949)
Daugava Riga (1949–1958)
RVR Riga (1958–1960)
Daugava Riga (1960–1968)
Dinamo Riga (1968–1991)
Stars Riga (1991–1992)
Pārdaugava Riga (1992–1995)
Venue Rīgas Sporta Pils
capacity 5,500 seats

Dinamo Riga was a Latvian ice hockey club from Riga that played in the Soviet First League . The team's home games were played in the first indoor ice rink in Latvia, the Rīgas Sporta Pils .

history

Dinamo Riga was founded during the occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union. After the Second World War , the club was re-established in 1946 and was one of twelve teams that played the first Soviet championship at a tournament in the winter of 1946/47. Dinamo Riga finished this tournament in fourth place behind HK Dynamo Moscow , HC CSKA Moscow and HC Spartak Moscow . Three years later the club was renamed Daugava Riga and remained in the top league of the Soviet Union until the 1958/59 season, but was never able to intervene in the battle for the championship.

With Daugava's relegation to the second division, a period of mediocrity began for Latvian ice hockey, which lasted until the end of the 1960s. Despite multiple attempts, the club failed to get promoted from the Soviet second division. 1968 Daugava was renamed again in Dinamo Riga and the team rose to the third division.

In 1968 the Russian coach Viktor Tikhonov took over the coaching position at Dinamo. Known for his penchant for discipline, he revolutionized training methods by using a video recorder to analyze matches. He also placed great emphasis on the physical fitness of his players. Due to the low potential of the Dinamo players, he used a strategy that no Soviet team had used until then: the game with four rows of attacks. As a result, his team was able to beat better teams playfully through speed and better condition, so that Dinamo in 1970 rose again to the second and 1973 even in the first division.

1975 was Viktors Hatuļevs the first player of the Soviet Union, by a team from the Dinamo Riga National Hockey League drafted was, but of course never got the chance to play in the NHL.

In the 1976/77 season Helmuts Balderis , one of the stars of the Dinamo team at that time, top scorer and top scorer in the elite league and consequently was named Player of the Year. In the previous season he had scored the most goals in the Soviet League. In 1983 he was again top scorer in the league - he scored a total of 333 goals and over 230 assists in the Soviet league .

In the 1987/88 season Dinamo Riga was able to celebrate the greatest success in the club's history: Second place in the Soviet championship behind CSKA Moscow. For this season, the league management had introduced a play-off system based on the American model. In the first round Dinamo was still in tenth place, but in the second round of the championship they were able to climb to third place. In the play-offs Dynamo Moscow was defeated 2-0, 3: 5 and 4: 2, before losing to ZSKA 3: 7, 2: 1, 2: 4 and 2: 5 in the series.

After the end of the Soviet Union, Dinamo continued to play in the CIS league until the club was dissolved in 1995. During this time, they played first under the name Stars Riga (after the sponsor A / S Stars) and later Pārdaugava Riga . At the same time, a new team was founded under the name Riga Juniors , which played in the East European Hockey League and to which many players moved after Dinamo dissolved.

In 1997, a kind of successor club was founded with Dinamo '81 Riga , which participated in the Latvian ice hockey league and EEHL. In 2000 this club also dissolved and was replaced by HK Riga 2000 . This belonged to the Latvian ice hockey league and was able to win the Latvian championship several times .

Seasonal statistics since 1978

season Sp S. N U Pt Torv. placement annotation Player statistics
1978/79 44 19th 18th 7th 45 150: 132 6th [1]
1979/80 44 16 24 4th 36 134: 162 8th [2]
1980/81 49 22nd 21st 6th 50 163: 157 5 [3]
1981/82 56 17th 33 6th 40 202: 234 8th [4]
1982-83 56 27 24 5 59 240: 212 5 [5]
1983-84 44 17th 19th 8th 42 146: 172 8th [6]
1984-85 52 18th 25th 9 45 170: 196 7th [7]
1985-86 40 19th 15th 6th 44 138: 128 5 [8th]
1986-87 40 14th 21st 5 33 117: 132 7th [9]
1987/88 44 21st 15th 8th 49 152: 138 3 Playoff final * [10]
1988-89 44 18th 20th 6th 42 115: 131 6th [11]
1989-90 48 26th 15th 7th 59 148: 117 5 [12]
1990-91 46 25th 16 5 55 187: 138 5 [13]

* The Soviet league only ended with play-offs in the 1987/88 season.

Legend: Sp = games, W = wins, N = defeats, U = draws, pts = points, Torv = goal difference

Famous players

Trainer

  • 1946–1949: Jānis Dobelis
  • 1949–1961: Edgars Klāvs
  • 1961–1962: Anatolijs Jegorovs
  • 1962–1963: Georgijs Firsovs
  • 1963–1968: Staņislavs Motls
  • 1968–1977: Viktor Tichonow
  • 1977–1980: Ēvalds Grabovskis
  • 1980–1989: Vladimir Jursinow
  • 1989–1990: Pyotr Vorobjow
  • 1990–1991: Ēvalds Grabovskis
  • 1992: Jevgeņijs Banovs
  • 1992-1994: Juris Reps
  • 1994–1995: Mihails Beskašnovs
  • 1995: Leonīds Beresņevs

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulmanis, Aivis: Melnās ripas bruņinieki: Latvijas hokeja vēsture . Latvijas Hokeja federācija, 1998, ISBN 9984-19-017-X . , P. 139
  2. ↑ latviansonline.com, Latvia's hockey history spans a century
  3. ↑ hockeydraftcentral.com, 1975 NHL Amateur Draft - Round 9