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The fight will start at 7.30 pm Latvian time and will be broadcast live on TV3 Sport 2.
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In the previous fight – in the first game of a series of four away matches – the Rigans suffered a 1: 6 defeat in Podolsk against Kaspars Daugavins’ “Vitjaz” from the Moscow region. On Thursday, the Rigans returned to the standings with big gaps due to the Covid-19 epidemic, filling the gaps with the hockey players of the Youth Hockey League (MHL), and in the post-match litters they beat the Minsk “Dinamo” with six wins in Riga.
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Even before that, in two matches – against the Moscow teams “Dinamo” and CSKA – the Rigans were sentenced to technical losses for not being able to leave the field due to Covid-19 illness, while in quarantine for almost two weeks.
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The team still can’t be helped by 11 players, four of whom are “legionnaires” from Canada and one from Russia, such team symbols as Gints Meija, Mikēlis Rēdlihs, Kristaps Sotnieks, as well as Kristaps Zīle.
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Meanwhile, opponents have invited goalkeeper Ivan Kulbakov, defender Nikita Sedov and striker Amira Garayev from Socrates “Izhstal” from their cooperation club in the Supreme Hockey League (VHL) to Sochi, but sent goalkeeper Arseniy Ahmetov in the opposite direction.
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“Sochi” has received a training camp in the middle of the season instead of one missed game, before which five of the last six games have been lost. In the last two, at the end of September, Moscow’s “Dynamo” was lost 2: 3 and Chelyabinsk’s “Traktor” lost 2: 4.
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The teams have not met each other this season, but the balance of mutual matches is impressive in favor of Sochi hockey players. Out of 14 mutual games, the Rigans managed to win only in two, in the same – only in the extension, but in both – in Sochi. Lost was also in the last mutual game in January – 1: 2 overtime.
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In this series of trips, Riga hockey players are also expected to visit Helsinki and Minsk.
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With five points in nine games, Dynamo ranks last among 11 Western Conference teams, ahead of only Beijing’s Red Star in the league. True, “Sochi” also has five points in nine games and 10th place in the West.
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Initially, the Riga team was quarantined until October 5, but the government on Tuesday decided to reduce the duration of home quarantine for Covid-19 patients from 14 to ten days, if not earlier than the tenth day after contact with the source of infection is negative, thus giving “Dinamo” healthy players a chance to return to the field faster.
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Nine hockey players and two staff members were previously reported to be infected with Covid-19 Dinamo.
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Last season, “Dinamo” took the penultimate place in the Western Conference and in the entire league, not qualifying for the Gagarin Cup for the sixth year in a row.
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