November 1, 13:00, Riga, Volvo Ice Arena.
Heading into their final game before the international break, Oleg Tymchenko’s side is eager to get back to winning ways.
The recent loss to Zemgale/LBTU further tightened the race in the Optibet Hockey League – now four teams are separated by just a single point. Two of them (Mogo/RSU and Zemgale/LBTU) will face each other tomorrow.
The upcoming opponent, Prizma, remains the only team in the league that the Capitals have yet to defeat. Their only previous encounter was relatively calm after goals from Tsarkovskyi and Begovs gave Kyiv the lead. However, a series of penalties turned the game around, allowing Jekimovs to score twice and force overtime, where Roberts completed his hat-trick to secure Prizma’s win.
Currently, the Riga side sits fifth in the standings, trailing our team by six points. In their last outing, Eriks Miļuns’ squad suffered a rather unexpected loss to Panter. That result left the hosts owing their fans a strong response.
As usual, let’s note the top scorers by the goal+assist system. For the Latvian team, Roberts Jekimovs leads with 19 points (12+7), while Martins Karsums of the Kyiv Capitals has 20 points (7+13).
Despite the earlier defeat in their head-to-head game, the Capitals can take confidence from another statistic – Tymchenko’s men have won all of their away matches so far. The main goal now is to draw the correct conclusions and extend this positive streak.
