It’s a brand new year, and some teams in the top tier of Latvian
hockey are eager to prove they’re brand new teams, too. The first few
games of 2025 have already been played, and the two-time Latvian
champions HK Zemgale/LBTU have finally managed to topple the “new
Northern powerhouse” – Tallinn-based HC Panter – from the very top of
the Baltic standings. However, they can’t afford to slip up now, as the
defending champions, Mogo, are rapidly approaching. Elsewhere, the
approach of the New Year signaled a shift in tides for teams near the
bottom of the table. With over half of the 2024/25 season having already
been played, the teams at the bottom of the league standings are
starting to make a push for the playoff spots, featuring an especially
fierce battle between the Riga-based Prizma and the current Lithuanian
champions – the legendary Energija Elektrenai – for fourth place in the
league.
The cooled-down Panter is finally dethroned!
HC Panter, the newest team to have joined the Optibet Hokeja Līga and
the only representative from Estonia, have turned out to be a massive
surprise in the league for all the good reasons. While they started the
season weak and shaky, with Zemgale having smashed the team in their
home arena in Tallinn with a score of 7-1, they have bared their fangs
and spent most of the season up to this point trying to prove that they
belong as one of the strongest teams in the league. With most of
Panter’s games finishing with a goal differential of just one, they’ve
shown to be a tricky, gritty team that can’t be easily underestimated.
In late October, I wrote an article focused entirely on HC Panter,
as they surprisingly managed to stand atop the Optibet Hokeja Liga.
It’s a testament to their ability that it took until 21st December –
when Zemgale defeated Prizma with a score of 6-1 – for the Estonian side
to finally get dethroned.
However, no matter how good the start or
middle of the season you have, it can all be for naught if you don’t
finish strong. Panter’s constant close games against Energija, one of
the weaker teams, had already started to raise eyebrows, and January’s
games against Rigas HS have been no different. Panter has played three
games already in January, facing off against just Rigas HS all three
times. Each of these games went to extra time, with Panter taking 3-2
overtime victories in the two games in Riga, while losing 3-4 at home in
the shootout.
It’s no surprise that Rigas HS, which currently finds
themselves second-last in the league, is struggling this season, as
almost all of the players from last season have moved on to other teams.
However, it is unacceptable for a team competing for first place in the
league to struggle this much against the junior side. Nonetheless, such
is the case with the current second-place holders, HC Panter Tallinn.
Even more notable is the results of both Zemgale and Mogo against the
very same Rigas HS. Mogo has a combined score of 34-6 over the span of 4
meetings, while Zemgale’s won their 2 games with a score of 15-2.
What’s going to follow this weak stretch will make or break Panter’s
shot at first place in the regular season. The good news – or bad, if
Panter’s performance isn’t up to snuff – is that their next four games
are against the defending champions, Mogo, which has the same amount of
points. Even just a fifty-fifty split will be enough for Panter to
continue their battle for first place, but any more points for Mogo and
they will be looking at a third place finish in the regular season.
Zemgale’s offense has started to bloom mid-way through the season
Zemgale has sneakily found themselves in first place at the start of
the new year, with their offense starting to bloom, unlike coach Artis
Abols’ usual defensive-minded style. Forward Kevins Stradnieks, who got
called up to the Latvian U20 national team for the WJC last season, has
finally made the step up that the team wanted from him over the past few
seasons. With 13 goals and 22 assists over the 22 games played this
season, his 35 points not only break his previous Optibet Hokeja Liga
record of 34 points last season, but currently are also enough for him
to be the top scorer in the league so far. Stradnieks has been able to
come up big when it matters, and his play is going to be vital for
Zemgale to retain their first place in the league.
Zemgale’s offense
isn’t comprised of *just* Stradnieks, however. Three more of their
players – Gricinskis, Millers and Begovs – find themselves with over 20
points this season, with 29, 23 and 22 points respectively. Also of note
is forward Peteris Purmalis, whose 13 goals scored tie him for top goal
scorer on the team alongside Kevins Stradnieks. The defense has done
very well too, as the team has allowed just 42 goals against over their
22 games played this season.
The
notably young goaltending line has performed admirably as well.
19-year-old Aksels Ozols has been their best goalie with a .922 sv% over
11 games, while 22-year-old Mariuss Bajaruns-Galejs hasn’t been too
shabby either, with a .909 sv% over his 10 starts. One of the most
talented young Latvian goaltenders, 17-year-old Patriks Plumins, has
also been given 3 starts, with a .905 sv% and even picking up an assist.
Zemgale has a relatively tough stretch ahead after a very easy 9-1
dismantling of Energija, with two games against their direct competitor
Mogo separated by a game against Rigas HS. Two wins against their rivals
for first place would do wonders for the team, though the 1-point-gap
between them and Mogo is still incredibly shaky, especially as Mogo has
played 3 games less than Zemgale has. In any case, unlike how unproven
Panter’s ability to battle for the Optibet Hokeja Liga championship is,
Zemgale will be a fierce enemy to any team they meet in the play-offs,
and it might be a series between them and Mogo for the title of Latvian
& Baltic champions at the end of this season.
Mogo has it all, except for first place!
Defending champions Mogo seem to have it all this season – the best
defense in the league, the best goaltending in the league, the
second-best offense in the league – yet the only thing they’re missing
as of right now is first place in the league. However, that may change
soon – just 1 point separates them from the first-placed Zemgale, with
Mogo holding a seemingly insurmountable 3-game advantage.
Just like in previous years, Mogo is relying on Gints Meija, Elviss
Zelubovskis, Deivids Sarkanis and Karlis Ozolins to do the most damage
offensively, while veteran defenseman Krisjanis Redlihs & Mogo
legend, goalie Henrijs Ancs set up an incredibly difficult defense to
overcome. As even the Continental Cup has shown, however, the projected
champions have shown their lapses of concentration at times – a lack of
effort throughout the entire tournament led to them failing to advance
from the second round. In the Optibet Hokeja Liga, a slip up in the
second game of the season against Prizma and a 2-5 defeat against Panter
have been their only losses so far, but that may soon change as they
have multiple games coming up against both Zemgale and Panter soon.
It’s no secret that Mogo’s goal this season was retaining the Latvian
and Baltic championship after having gone through a four-year drought
before defeating Zemgale for the title last season, but now, as just
over half of the season has been played, we’ll truly be able to see if
Mogo is up to the task, or if we should be looking forward to a
different team hoisting the champions cup this year.
Prizma and Energija in a scrappy contest for fourth place
A great start to the season for Prizma – a win against defending
champions Mogo – quickly devolved into a messy and scrappy battle for
fourth place against the Lithuanian champions, Energija Elektrenai. The
team is very obviously stagnating, having finished 5th and 4th over the
past two years, and, with no real path to developing the team on the
cards, they’re slated to finish fourth once more. Of the three
foreigners on the team, only goaltender Marshall Murphy has gotten real
playing time — a whopping… 9 games in the 23 played by the team.
18-year-old Slovak Forward Jakub Sporina has spent the entire season
playing for the Prizma 2nd team in the JAHL/1. Liga, while 20-year-old
Ukrainian forward Artem Danfort has 1 assist in 4 games for Prizma. Even
so, Murphy’s performances haven’t been spectacular – a mere .860 sv%
and an average goals against of 5.15 cast a massive shadow over his good
performances. Of the major domestic player signings in the off-season,
the signing of Vitalijs Pavlovs, who played for the Fife Flyers in the
EIHL a season earlier, proved to be a failure, with the forward putting
up just 3 points in 10 games before leaving the team to play in the
German 4th division. Roberts Jekimovs and Renars Cipruss proved to be
good signings on the offensive end, however, as the two have picked up
23 and 13 points respectively. Ultimately, it is hard for any goaltender
to be spectacular when their entire team is the opposite of
spectacular.
Nevertheless,
the 21-year-old Janis Sidass has become a good starting goaltender for
Prizma, and entered the role surprisingly well. Having played in 19
games this season, he’s allowed just 2.8 goals against on average and
has a sv% of .912. It’s clear that if Prizma wants any hope to succeed
this season, they’ll have to rely on Sidass playing lights-out. They
have the ability to always put at least one or two past the enemy
goaltender, but their defensive end leaves many questions to be
answered. Prizma can definitely hope for better tides with their
upcoming schedule featuring games against weaker sides – Energija,
Hockey Punks and Rigas HS. While they’re looking to finish in 4th place,
there’s nothing they’ve done that would truly suggest a shot at
upsetting the apple cart in the playoffs.
Energija is the best-performing Lithuanian team this season, which,
unfortunately, doesn’t say much. Stuck in 5th place, the team’s offense
is led by veteran forward Tadas Kumeliauskas with 24 points in 21 games
played. Unfortunately, after Kumeliauskas, there isn’t really any
offense to speak of other than Aivaras Bendzius (10 goals + 5 assists)
and Dovydas Laimutis (8 goals + 3 assists). With the third-worst offense
and the third-worst defense in the league, they rightfully sit in 5th
place out of the 7 teams participating this year. While goalie Arkadijus
Grigaravicius-Reyzin has tried his hardest keeping the games close,
putting up a .892 sv%, this is still a far cry from the old Energija
Elektrenai that used to be competitive in the Latvian league.
Energija finds themselves with a tough schedule ahead – while they
will get relatively easier games against Vilnius and Prizma, they will
be followed up by games against Mogo, Zemgale and Panter. It’ll be
relatively difficult for the team to bridge the three point gap between
them and Prizma.
Vilnius and Rigas HS continue to struggle
The bottom two teams this year – Vilnius Hockey Punks & Rigas HS –
have produced next to no stories, not even headlines, this season.
That’s why it was an incredible surprise at the start of the new year
that Rigas HS, one of the worst teams in the league this year, managed
to bring Panter, one of the leading teams in the league, to overtime
three times in a row – and even win once! It shows that there is a lot
of fighting spirit in the young team, of which multiple players will get
called up to the Latvian Under-18s National Team. Despite that, they
just aren’t ready this season. Their biggest talents have been Gustavs
Spigulis and Maksims Saperins with 17 points each, while goaltenders
Arturs Skrebutens and Ivans Kufterins have done relatively well, with an
.892 sv% and .891 sv% respectively. They’re not *great* numbers, but
for a young team with an average age of just 17.3 years, they show that
the goaltending duo is at the very least ready for this league. All in
all, despite having the worst offense in the league with just 52 goals
scored, they only find themselves in second-last place, as their defense
is just barely better than the one displayed by Vilnius.
The Vilnius Hockey Punks have had an atrocious season. Just 54 goals
scored, and an insane 132 goals allowed over 23 games played, leaves a
lot to be desired. Finnish forward Alex Maunula (15GP, 7G+7A) is their
biggest talent offensively, though besides Maunula only Ilja Cetvertak
(23GP, 5G+12A) and Timonas Mazulis (22GP, 8G+8A) deserve to be noted.
Their starting goaltending duo has put up horrible numbers in the league
so far, with Simas Baltrunas at .867 sv% and Artur Pavliukov at .871
sv%. It’s clear that the Lithuanian teams aren’t ready for this level
yet – at the very least, not with the talent currently available to them
right now – and there’s been quite a few questions raised by the public
about the further involvement of Lithuanian teams in the league,
especially due to the Estonian Panter’s high success in their first two
seasons.
They can definitely turn this around slowly season by
season, and, for example, the Lithuanian U20 NT featured multiple
defensemen from Energija & Vilnius. There is talent here, but it has
to be nurtured and built on year-by-year, in the hopes that one day we
have a truly competitive Baltic league where the “Baltic Champion” title
isn’t just automatically handed to the best Latvian team. With the
return of Liepaja confirmed, as well as the potential return of
Daugavpils & Kurbads on the horizon, we might be re-entering a
golden era of both Latvian domestic club hockey, as well as Baltic
hockey as a whole.