Metalurgs finishes last at Continental Cup

For the past couple of days Latvian club Metalurgs Liepaja participated in the Continental Cup third round, which was held in Rouen. Unfortunately, Liepaja lost in all three of its games, finishing last in the group. The winner of the group (Rouen) qualified for the Continental Cup Final Four.

Throughout the history of Continental Cup the only Latvian club to play in the Final Four was HK Riga 2000, who finished in the second place in both 2006 and 2008. However, in 2008 the tournament was held in Riga, so that HK Riga 2000 had a guaranteed place there.

Final standings:

	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GD	Pts
Rouen	3	2	0	1	0	12:6	7
Coventry Blaze	3	2	0	0	1	15:9	6
Cracovia Krakow	3	1	1	0	1	10:12	5
Metalurgs Liepaja	3	0	0	0	3	7:17	0

Metalurgs Liepaja games:

November 26	Coventry Blaze	1:6
November 27	Rouen	1:4
November 28	Cracovia Krakow	5:7

Metalurgs Liepaja player statistics:

	GP	G	A	P	PIM
Vladimirs Mamonovs	3	2	1	3	0
Edgars Brancis	3	2	1	3	2
Juris Stals	3	1	1	2	4
Yuri Navarenko	3	0	2	2	27
Viktors Blinovs	3	1	0	1	0
Edmunds Kniksts	3	1	0	1	4
Janis Andersons	3	0	1	1	0
Toms Zeltins	3	0	1	1	0
Arturas Katulis	3	0	1	1	2
Nerius Alisauskas	3	0	1	1	2
Vents Feldmanis	3	0	1	1	4
Kristers Freibergs	3	0	0	0	0
Gunars Skvorcovs	3	0	0	0	0
Vitalijs Pavlovs	3	0	0	0	0
Maris Gravitis	3	0	0	0	0
Lauris Bajaruns	3	0	0	0	2
Koba Jass	3	0	0	0	2
Valeri Bobkov	3	0	0	0	2
Renars Demiters	3	0	0	0	4
Valerijs Filimonovs	3	0	0	0	4

	GP	GAA	TOI
Maris Jucers	3	5.71	126:03
Dmitrijs Zabotinskis	2	5.56	53:57

Blinovs joins Metalurgs Liepaja

After being released from Belarussian Extraleague club Shakhter Soligorsk, Latvian forward Viktors Blinovs has signed a contract for the rest of the season with Latvian club Metalurgs Liepaja, who also takes part in the Belarussian championship, reports ICEBOX.

Metalurgs Liepaja is currently seventh in the Belarussian champinship, while Blinovs previous club Shakhter is just one point ahead. Metalurgs Liepaja top scorer at the moment is the 1990-born Gunars Skvorcovs, who has scored 13 points in 24 games. He is closely followed by Edijs Brahmanis, Vladimirs Mamonovs and Ukrainian Artem Gnidenko.

This season Blinovs has played only nine games, of whom majority were played in September, as later on coach already chose not to dress Blinovs for the games. In the nine games played Blinovs has posted two goals and added two assists.

Between 2000 and 2004 Blinovs had already played for Metalurgs Liepaja. Viktors has been playing in the Belarussian Extraleague now already since 2006/07 and has experienced playing for Neman Grodno, Gomel, HK Riga 2000, Metallurg Zhlobin, Shakhter Soligorsk and now also Metalurgs Liepaja. In the first half of 2008/09, Blinovs played 24 games for the KHL club Dinamo Riga.

Shakhter releases Blinovs

Latvian forward Viktors Blinovs, who was the last Latvian in foreign Belarussian Extraleague clubs, has been released from Shakhter Soligorsk, reports Icebox.

This season Blinovs has played only nine games, of whom majority in September, as later on coach already was not dressing him for the games. In the nine games played Blinovs posted two goals and added two assists.

Blinovs had been playing in the Belarussian Extraleague already since 2006/07 and has experienced playing for Neman Grodno, Gomel, HK Riga 2000, Metallurg Zhlobin and now Shakhter Soligorsk. In the first half of 2008/09, Blinovs played for the KHL club Dinamo Riga.

League, besides the Latvian clubs playing there, has always had several Latvian players playing in Belarussian clubs simultaneously, however, after Blinovs has been released, now there is not a single Latvian left in the league. Also Janis Straupe and Aleksandrs Macijevskis, who started this season in Zhlobin, have both been released.

Andersons and Stals reassigned to Metalurgs

Dinamo Riga players defender Janis Andersons and forward Juris Stals, after returning from an away tour in Russia, have both been reassigned to Belarusian Extraleague club Metalurgs Liepaja, located 200 kilometers away from Riga.

Neither of the players have played a single game for Dinamo, however they both traveled to an away tour in Russia, in order to be ready to step into the roster, in case of injuries. Along them, also junior players Vitaly Karamnov and Ainars Podzins were with the team. Moreover, Podzins has been dressed for each and every game so far, but had the chance to participate in the actual game only tonight, during the 6:3 win over Neftekhimik Niznekamsk.

Metalurgs Liepaja has already played six regular season games, winning half of them. After many rumours during summer, in August Dinamo Riga signed an agreement with Metalurgs Liepaja, so that Dinamo might reassign up to five players to Liepaja, having no rights to call up a player signed by Metalurgs.

Metalurgs Liepaja wins Polish national team

Latvian club Metalurgs Liepaja spent the last few days in Poland, where it took part in the Sosnowiec Cup, as a part of the team’s pre-season schedule. On August 21, the last day of the cup, Metalurgs Liepaja managed to win over Polish national team and finish the tournament in second place.

On Day 1 Metalurgs Liepaja faced HC Ocelari Trinec of the Czech Extraleague and lost 2:4. Goals for Liepaja were scored by Edgars Brancis and Vladimirs Mamonovs.

Metalurgs line-up:

Dmitrijs Zabotinskis

Vents Feldmanis – Yuri Navarenko; Vladimirs Mamonovs – Artem Gnidenko – Valerijs Filimonovs

Arturas Katulis – Sergei Gubin; Edijs Brahmanis – Edgars Brancis – Gunars Skvorcovs

Renars Demiters – Edmunds Kniksts; Lauris Bajaruns – Vitalijs Pavlovs – Toms Zeltins

Nerius Alisauskas – Glebs Rogoza; Koba Jass – Maris Gravitis – Maris Dilevka(Aldis or Edgars Abolins)

The roster of Metalurgs Liepaja stayed exactly like this for the rest of the tournament. On Day 2 Metalurgs won local Zaglebie Sosnowiec 5:2 with two goals scored by Ukrainian Artem Gnidenko, as well as Lithuanian Arturas Katulis, Vladimirs Mamonovs and Valerijs Filimonovs. In the team’s 2:1 win over Polish NT the goal scorers were Filimonovs and Skvorcovs.

On September 3 Metalurgs Liepaja will play their last exhibition game against Dinamo Riga. The team will begin the regular season on September 8, when it will play against Khimvolokno Mogilev.

Metalurgs Liepaja becomes farm club of Dinamo

According to the general manager of Metalurgs Liepaja Mihails Vasilonoks, after long discussions in the media, Dinamo Riga and Metalurgs have finally signed an agreement, according to which the club from Liepaja becomes the farm club of Dinamo Riga.

The details of the contract remain unknown, however previously it was stated that Metalurgs will not become a traditional farm club – Dinamo will be allowed to send up to five players to Liepaja, but it will not be able to call up players, who have a contract with Dinamo.

Another Dinamo Riga farm club is HK Riga, which is going to play in MHL, but, as MHL is an U21 league, Dinamo had to find a place, where post-junior age players could, not able to make the Dinamo line-up, could play.

Metalurgs Liepaja is ready to start

It has been already some time, since the Latvian club Metalurgs Liepaja began their thirteenth pre-season camp. For the fifth time the team will play in the Belarusian league. After the current Latvian champion Dinamo Juniors Riga ceased their existence, Metalurgs will also take part in the Continental Cup.

The team is traditionally built around long-time Metalurgs veterans, such as Filimonovs, Zabotinskis, Feldmanis, Mamonovs. The team consists also of many younger players, who have learned the game of hockey in Liepaja. Besides Lithuanian Nerius Alisauskas and Russian Sergei Gubin, who have played in Liepaja for several years, this season the team also includes Lithuanian defender Arturas Katulis and two Ukrainians – Yuri Navarenko and Artem Gnidenko. All three have appeared in several Worlds Championships for their respective national teams.

Two players, who played for Metalurgs almost since the first day, Eduards Ivanovs and Juris Ozols after the previous season have decided to retire from hockey. Eduards Ivanovs already has been announced as one of the Metalurgs-2 Liepaja coaches for 2010/11.

Metalurgs Liepaja current roster:

G	Dmitrijs Zabotinskis	Latvia	1980
G	Maris Jucers	Latvia	1987
G	Janis Kalnins	Latvia	1991
G	Nauris Grinvalds	Latvia	1990
D	Vents Feldmanis	Latvia	1977
D	Edmunds Kniksts	Latvia	1982
D	Renars Demiters	Latvia	1986
D	Nerius Alisauskas	Lithuania	1991
D	Glebs Rogoza	Latvia	1991
D	Karlis Liepins	Latvia	1990
D	Martins Gipters	Latvia	1989
D	Sergei Gubin	Russia	1977
D	Arturas Katulis	Lithuania	1981
D	Yuri Navarenko	Ukraine	1979
F	Valerijs Filimonovs	Latvia	1979
F	Vladimirs Mamonovs	Latvia	1980
F	Maris Gravitis	Latvia	1981
F	Edijs Brahmanis	Latvia	1983
F	Gunars Skvorcovs	Latvia	1990
F	Sergejs Danilovs	Latvia	1989
F	Vitalijs Pavlovs	Latvia	1989
F	Toms Zeltins	Latvia	1986
F	Aldis Abolins	Latvia	1985
F	Lauris Bajaruns	Latvia	1989
F	Arturs Mickevics	Latvia	1991
F	Edgars Brancis	Latvia	1985
F	Maris Dilevka	Latvia	1992
F	Artem Gnidenko	Ukraine	1980

Macijevskis about to be signed by Zhlobin

Latvian ice hockey forward Aleksandrs Macijevskis, who has spent the previous decade in Danish  ice hockey, is very close to signing a contract with Belarusian league club Metallurg Zhlobin.

Spending last ten years in Danish league, Macijevskis has lifted the Danish cup above his head three times, but during the past two seasons, playing in Sonderjyske, has also became a two-time Danish league champion.

35-year-old player will join Janis Straupe, who has already signed a contract with the club. Let me just remind you that last season there were three Latvian players in Zhlobin, but in both 2007-08 and 2008-09 the number of Latvian players in Zhlobin reached four. I already wrote that Viktors Blinovs, who was one of the Latvians in Metallurg last season, recently signed a contract with another Belarusian club – Shakhter Soligorsk.

Macijevskis has played in nine World Championships (of whom the last one was in 2008, in Halifax) for the Latvian national team, as well as 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic games.

Blinovs joins Shakhter Soligorsk

Latvian forward Viktors Blinovs will remain in the Belarusian league also next season, however he will play in Shakhter Soligorsk, the farm club of KHL’s Dynamo Minsk, instead of Metallurg Zhlobin, where he spent his previous season.

Most likely, Blinovs has a two-way contract, so, in a case of great performance, he could work his way back to the KHL, where he played 24 games with Dinamo Riga in 2008-09.

Actually, Kaspars Saulietis (who is currently in HPK for a try-out), has already taken this path in the past. He played in Zhlobin, but was noticed by the board of Dynamo Minsk and signed a contract, so that he joined Dynamo Minsk mid-season of 2008-09. He continued playing in Minsk also in 2009-10.