Põlva Serviti and HC Dragunas Klaipeda back to the trail of victories, HK Ogre wins Latvian derby against ZRHK Tenax Dobele.

November 21, 2021

Põlva Serviti and HC Dragunas Klaipeda back to the trail of victories, HK Ogre wins Latvian derby against ZRHK Tenax Dobele.

This weekend brought many interesting games and few surprises. Põlva Serviti and HC Dragunas Klaipeda finished this week perfect with two wins. SK Tapa secured their first victory, but HK Ogre managed to win ZRHK Tenax Dobele. These results one more time proved that in BHL – you can never know.

– SK Latgols Ludza – HC Dragunas Klaipeda             34:48 (15:25)
HC Dragunas Klaipeda started the game convincingly and already in the first half achieved a favorable +5 (13:8). By the end of the first half, they managed to double their lead – 25:15. Two HC Dragunas players were able to score all their made shots – Mykolas Lapiniauskas and Rokas Palskys, both made five out five goals. In the second half, Klaipeda continued its dominance and for the second day in a row scored more than 40 goals and celebrated the victory with the result 48:34.

Gintaras Cibulskis, coach of HC Dragunas Klaipeda
“We scored 48 goals today, I would say that defense of our opponents was not the best, they let us score easy goals. Also today we had a chance to give some game time to our young players. We enjoyed the game. Now we have 7-hour trip to Klaipeda. This weekend we got all four points, everything went as planned.”

Best scorers:
SK Latgols Ludza – Lipskis 8, Rancāns E., 5, Kušners Edijs 5, Grebeņņikovs 5, Malahovs 4, Seņkāns 3, Rozenbergs 3, Usāns 1
HC Dragunas Klaipeda – Draksas 8, Simonavicius 6, Lapiniauskas 6, Palskys 6, Hlushak 4, Biknkius 4, Butkus 4, Naghavialhosseini 3, Mazrimas 3, Lobchuk 2, Bucius 1, Aidukonis 1

– HC Vilnius – Raasiku/Mistra  32:31 (15:14)
This game led a very similar path, the change of the result took place regularly. At the end of first half HC Vilnius were a little more successful and in break went with one goal lead – 15:14. The game was equal also in the second half, although HC Vilnius managed to get a 2-3 goal advantage, the result of the game was unpredictable. Two minutes until the end of the game it was a draw. The last goal of the game was scored by the Vilnius team with a 7-meter penalty shot, after which Raasiku was no not able to score and HC Vilnius celebrated the victory – 32:31.

Martynas Žala, player of HC Vilnius
“The game was difficult; it was hard to find motivation, because of poor defence. Then in the second half we took the lead. Since then playing as a team we won the game.”

Vladyslav Naumenko, player of Raasiku/Mistra
“The game was quite equal. This game was just like yesterday, we missed a little bit at the end of the game and we played, especially, in the defense not as coach asked from us. We did not do what we should have to do, to stop Vilnius players.”

Best scorers:
HC Vilnius – Urbonas 10, Lapinskas 7, Žala 7, Drevinskas 5, Petronis 2, Milaknis 1
Raasiku/Mistra – Anton 7, Naumenko 6, Sokorovich 6, Nerut 4, Annula 2, Vare 2, Kopli 2, Kesskula 2

– HK Ogre – ZRHK Tenax Dobele  30:29 (16:15)
The Latvian derby was proving to be very exciting and after first 30 minutes HK Ogre was not ready to give up the fight against Latvian champions. Renāts Hovratovičs (HC Ogre) with six goals helped the team to go in the break with one goal advantage – 16:15. The second half was also tense and exciting. Dobele players were able to regain the lead, but HK Ogre did their best to stay in the game and it succeeded. 15 seconds to the end of the game with a 7-meter free throw, Ogre reached 30:29 and, that was also the end result of the game.

Sandris Veršakovs, coach of ZRHK Tenax Dobele
“We met our weekend goals only partially. The fact that today’s game will not be easy was predicted. The whole game was also a point in point, we got to plus four and didn’t hold the lead, and the end dealing minimal loss. Unfortunately, someone always wins and someone loses, this time we did. We are going to analyse the mistakes so that they do not happen again and start preparing for the EHF European Cup in Greece tomorrow.”

Andris Molotanovs, coach of HK Ogre
“Of course, there is joy about the victory. In terms of performance, I think the team played very well in both – attack and the defense. Today we put more emphasis on defense and it worked, we were also more patient in the attack. I am glad that Renāts got into the game in position of a line player, which is not his typical position. Also Toms threw a cold-blooded 7-meter penalty when needed, and our goalkeepers played well. We are on the right track and we need to get back to power, this is certainly a good motivation to continue, but of course we must not be happy and think that everything is done. We have a lot of important games ahead of us and one of them next week with the SK Latgols team. The team has great potential and I hope we will continue to prove it.”

Best scorers:
HK Ogre – Patsykailik 10, Lielais 7, Hovratovičs 7, Haisa 3, Lazdiņš 3
ZRHK Tenax Dobele –  Plūme 5, Miķelsons 5, Pančenko 4, Tuminskis 3, Šuleiko 3, Kreicbergs 3, Politers 2, Kuremnieks 2, Juzups 1, Suharevs 1

– Põlva Serviti – SK Tapa  33:24 (13:8)
In another Estonian derby, the Põlva Servititeam once again confirmed the status of one of the leaders. Already in the first half – 13:8. Nothing in the second half prevented Põlva from continuing what they started in first half of the game and celebrating a convincing victory – 33:24.

Ülljo Pihus, player of Põlva Serviti
“Today we had a different game. We were able to rotate with squad, which is critical at the current stage of season, with difficult games and tight schedule ahead. Today we were in control of the game and result was pleasant victory. In overall it was good weekend. We fulfilled our goal of getting four points from the weekend. We can be happy with the progress.”

Marcus Rättel, player of SK Tapa
“We played fine against Põlva until the 45th minute where the tiredness got the best of us and towards the end we made some easy mistakes. Also we were struggling to put the ball in to the goal and our defence could have been better. On the positive note, our goalkeeper Artur Oganezov made some incredible saves.”

Best scorers
Põlva Serviti – Sarapuu 6, Saksing 5, Rebane 4, Chezlov 4, Pihus 4, Hiiend 4, Veiko 1, Meikšāns 1
SK Tapa – Rättel 6, Himma 3, Berezhnyi 3, Saar 2, Oolup 2, Lande 2, Kosmirak 2, Parve 2, Vassiljuk 1, Jaanis 1

– HC Kehra/Horizon Pulp&Paper – HC Viljandi          23:34 (12:18)
Although the first 20 minutes of the game were quite similar, HC Viljandi players were able to finish the first half under the lead – 18:12. After 60 minutes HC Viljandi were leading – 34:23 and celebrated their 10th victory in this season.

Kristo Voika, player and coach of HC Viljandi
“First half was quite bad, we did not play our game, we were too ‘soft’ in defense and not enough aggressive in attack as well. We let young players win against us and never good. Today was the game we could have win our confidence back after yesterday’s loss. At the end it was just ‘finish the game’ path.”

Best scorers
HC Kehra/Horizon Pulp&Paper – Gumianov 5, Kreegimaa 5, Normak 3, Soikka 3, Mamporia 2, Benstrom 2, Liedemann 2, Seermann 1
HC Viljandi –  Voika 6, Varik O., 5, Lopp 4, Koovit 3, Maasalu 3, Basarab 3, Ruut 3, Varik M., 2, Koks 2, Liinsoo 1, Drogin 1, Pertelson 1

PositionTeamGWDL+/-Pts.
1.Viljandi HC1110017020
2.Põlva Serviti119028518
3.HC Dragunas Klaipeda107034714
4.ZRHK Tenax Dobele96123613
5.VHC Šviesa Vilnius106132613
6.HC Vilnius9504-710
7.Granitas-Karys Kaunas9504510
8.HC Kehra/Horizon Pulp&Paper11407-138
9.Raasiku/Mistra10307-136
10.SK Tapa11308-426
11.Varsa-Stronglasas Alytus9306-96
12.HK Ogre9207-614
13.SK Latgols Ludza9009-1240