Tops

On Monday, the teams resumed their first ice training to prepare for the season finale tournament. NHL matches have not taken place since March 11.

Merzlikkin admits that the time spent in solitary confinement was boring, although there are many changes in his personal life.

“I was trying to try new things and discover something new in myself. I got engaged and got married, but it wasn’t the right time to announce it publicly. I almost took care of the other dog,” Merzlin said to the North American media at a news conference.

The goalkeeper of the Latvian national team admits that it was difficult to keep himself in shape, because he did not have the opportunity to do a lot of training in the apartment.

“There were basic training, stretching and a little running. It was weird and boring. But now I feel good, I don’t feel any discomfort or stiffness,” Merzlikkin noted.

Unlike Blue Jackets’ second goalkeeper Jonas Korpisalo, Merzlikkin remained in the United States, so he has been able to train since the teams opened their halls.

Elvis and his new wife Aleksandra from Poland have already managed to surprise many with another picture that would seem to suggest that the young couple is also expecting their firstborn, in addition to their son. However, the couple later denied this fact, adding that the smoke was not blue but green.

“I was lucky to be here and I was able to train two weeks before the start of the training camp. I started to feel the puck. I have to endure a lot of throws, a little tired, but at the same time it makes me work hard,” said Merzlikkin.

According to him, at the moment we do not have to think about who will be the team’s first goalkeeper, but should help the team to win.

“At the moment, I’m not focusing on being the first goalkeeper and being superior to Korpi. Now the main task is to give myself the maximum and, if I play, to help win the victories. We are friends and we are here to help the team win. That’s the most important , “stressed Merzlikkin.

Compared to the pre-season training camp, Merzlikin no longer has the feeling that something is new or unusual.

“I’ve played in the NHL and I know what I’m capable of. Compared to a pre-season training camp, I’m now a completely different goalkeeper,” said Merzlikkin, stressing he wasn’t afraid of being eliminated from the tournament. “I know I’m good at knockouts and I can handle the pressure. Of course, the NHL is something completely different. I played the play-off several times in Switzerland and knew how to pull a team out in difficult situations.”

In total, Merzlikins has played in 33 games this season. In 21 matches, he helped the team score at least one point. On average, Merzlikins conceded 2.35 discs and repelled 92.3% of the show.

Yesterday it became known that Merzlikkin was not included among the nominees for the NHL season’s best debutant award.

Three candidates have been nominated for the Caldera trophy: Vancouver Canucks defender Quey Hughe, Chicago Blackhawks forward Dominik Kubalik and Colorado Avalanche defender Keil Macar.

In May, members of the NHL Professional Inspectors Association voted for potential nominees for the award. Merzlikkin took fourth place in the vote after Makers, Hughes and Buffalo’s Sabers striker Viktor Ulofson.

In turn, in the vote of the team’s general managers, Merzlikkin was the sixth place among the candidates for the award for the best goalkeeper of the season. Leading trophies for the three candidates will be announced on Friday.

In January, Merzlikin won eight games in ten games, placing an average of 1.72 puck in the match and repelling 94.8% of opponents’ throws, as well as defending his “fortress” three times. This month, he also claimed the title of best player in the league.

After a great performance in January, the goalkeeper was the leader in the “dry” games for a while, being able to protect his goal intact five times. In total, he has played in 33 games this season. In 21 matches, he helped the team score at least one point. On average, Merzlikins allowed 2.35 discs in the match and repelled 92.3% of broadcasts.

On Wednesday, the NHL announced three nominees for the season’s best coach award, named after Jack Edams. The Blue Jackets coach of Columbus, represented by Merzlikkin, and Bruce Casidy, the co-driver of the Boston Bruins, and Alain Vigno, the head of the Philadelphia Flyers, are applying for this trophy.

It is already known that the Edwardon Oilers striker Leon Draizaitls will receive the Arthur Rosso award as the best goal scorer, while the most successful player award – the Maurice Richards trophy – will go to Alexander Oweckin (Washington “Capitals”) and David Pastrņeks (Boston “Bru ).

It is also known that the award named after William Jenning will be given to “Bruins” goalkeepers Tuka Rasks and Yaroslav Halak, because the team they represent scored the least in the regular championship.

Other individual prizes will be determined by voting, but potential candidates will be identified in advance in the polls.

The NHL season is scheduled to resume on August 1 with a 24-team tournament taking place in two Canadian cities, Edmonton and Toronto.

The Finnish duo Rīka Lehtonen / Nīna Ahtiainen won the 28th place in the Kravčenoka / Graudiņa Group E with 2-0 (21:14, 21:14).

In the first set of the game, the Latvian duo quickly reached 9: 3, but in the second half of the set it already reached +11 (15: 4). Following the set, the majority of the Finnish opponents split up to +4 (13:17), but could not equalize the result and lost with 14:21.

In the second set, the Finns were able to keep the European champions one or two points away for a long time, but Kravčenoka / Graudiņa’s shot was taken after the 18th point in the set, when he won the next three games (13: 8). Soon the advantage increased to seven points (16: 9), but the victory point was scored by Graudiņa, who played exactly in the block on the net.

On Wednesday, Latvia’s leading duo for victory in Group E will compete with the Russian pair Ksenija Dabiža / Darja Rudika, who have been awarded the 21st number.

On September 4, Graudiņa was diagnosed with Covid-19, as a result of which there was a possibility that the athlete would not be able to defend the title won last year. In subsequent tests, the tests she passed repeatedly showed a negative result, so the athlete was allowed to participate in the European Championship.

For this reason, she and her partner Kravčenok had to spend several days in the preparatory phase before the European Championships in Jūrmala.

It has already been reported that Marta Ozoliņa / Luīze Skrastiņa, who was placed in group B with number 31, lost 0-2 (7:21, 16:21) to the titled Germans Laura Ludviga / Margareta Kozuha, who were awarded the second number.

Meanwhile, in the first duel of Group G, Krista Paegle / Kristīne Briede, who was assigned the number 26, lost to the Dutch duo Sanni Kaizere / Madeleina Mepelinka, who were assigned the seventh number, with 13:21, 17:21.

In the Group F game, European U-20 champions Anete Namiķe / Varvara Brailko, who were awarded the 27th number, lost with 0-2 (16:21, 16:21) the bronze medalists of the 2018 European competition for the Czech Republic Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermanova, who also played in Utrecht, entering the second round.

Tomorrow in the match for the third place in the group Paegle / Briede will meet the German duo Kim Byrens / Sinja Tilmane, who are sown with the tenth number, while the Latvians in the 31st issue will meet the Russian duo Ekaterina Birlova / Yevgeny Ukolova (15th issue). Namie / Brailko will meet with the French Alexander Jupiter and Alina Shamer, who have been assigned the 22nd issue.

The European Beach Volleyball Championship in Jūrmala takes place from September 15 to 20. The 32-pair men’s and women’s tournament brings together the best European beach volleyball men’s duets from 16 countries and women’s duets from 13 countries.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the tournament is eligible for one of the strongest tournaments of the season in terms of status in the world.

Although the Olympic rankings related to the Covid-19 pandemic were frozen on March 16 this year, the European Championship is traditionally one of the tournaments in which teams compete for Olympic ranking points.

Volleyball players will also compete for a total prize pool of 200,000 euros.

The decision to organize the competition in Latvia was made at the meeting of the Board of the European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) on July 7, 2020.

In the previous European Championship in Jūrmala in 2017, Jānis Šmēdiņš and Aleksandrs Samoilovs became vice-champions. In August 2017, Šmēdiņš with Samoilov reached the final, where he lost to the Italians Daniel Lupo and Paolo Nikola, but the surprisingly high fifth place was won by Graudiņa and Kravčenoka, as well as Mārtiņš Pļaviņš with Harald Regža.

This year, the competitions of the World Tour stage were to take place in Jūrmala, but this tournament was postponed to the next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“VEF Rīga” won “Ventspils” with 96:93 (33:22, 27:30, 22:19, 14:22).

Absolutely all the fights were led by Rigans, but the guests were always able to approach the result again, reaching three points in the finish.

Aigars Skele had 21 points, 16 – Marc Vitols, 13 points and seven rebounds – Alexander Madsen, and ten points each – Arnold Helman and Aizi Pinjeiro.

An excellent game for Māris Gulbis, who provoked the violation of the rules to his opponents ten times without 31 points, then threw 12 out of 17 free throws.

In the ranks of the guests there are 23 points, six rebounds and four assists, but also six errors for Arthur Auss, 18 points for Kemeron Randls, and ten points and six rebounds for Christopher Coff.

After a 13-point deficit at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the guests made a 13: 2 breakthrough, but failed to get even closer.

Randls scored a three-point deficit on Vītols’ two-point free throws with a two-point throw, and Šķēle’s three-pointer was inaccurate 14 seconds before the end of regular time, giving another chance to Ventspils. However, Gulbis’ last three-point throw in the match two seconds before its end was not accurate, leaving “VEF Rīga” at the top of the tournament table.

On Saturday, “Valmiera Glass” / “Vidzeme University College” in its square gave way to “Liepāja” with 86:88 (19:14, 26:35, 20:15, 21:24).

Impressive “double-double” – 21 points and 16 assists – for Edmunds Elksnis. 19 points and eight errors for Valters Vēvers, 12 points for Jānis Engers.

In favor of the winners “double-double” – 20 points and 12 rebounds – for Guntis Sīpoliņš, 12 points for Roberts Bērziņš, 11 points for Renārs Birkāns, who also has six assists, and Iļjs Gromovs, who scored “double-double” with 12 under baskets and ten points for Dāvis Geks.

In another match in Estonia, Tallinn’s “Kalev” / TLU beat Rakvere’s “Tarvas” led by Juris Umbraško and represented by Kristaps Gludītis with 94:93 (20:35, 25:23, 18:20, 31:15).

With 23 points and seven rebounds, Smoothis became the most productive player in his team, but for the winning triple-double – 30 points, ten rebounds and seven assists – Brandy Reilly-Ross approached.

Leading the tournament table with a balance of 4-0 is “VEF Rīga”. The third with one loss in four matches is “Ventspils”, “Liepāja” with two victories in four games is the eighth, “Ogre” with one success in three games – the ninth, Valmiera team with one victory in four games – the tenth, but the University of Latvia, which in three matches there are 13 teams in the table without wins.

Tallinn “Kalev” / “Cramo”, trained by Robert Sttelmaher and Akseelis Vairogs and represented by Jānis Kaufmanis, has not played yet and takes 11th place.

On Sunday, the “University of Latvia” in Riga will fight the “Ogri”.

From October 3 to December 5, 30 games between Latvian teams are planned. Meanwhile, seven Estonian teams will also play their mini-tournaments.

In the main tournament of the third season of LIBL, 13 teams are planned to hold a two-round tournament, after which there will be playoffs – a quarter-final series and a “Final Four” tournament.

13 teams – six Latvian units – “VEF Rīga”, “Ogre”, “Ventspils”, “Valmiera Glass” / “Vidzeme University College”, “University of Latvia” and “Liepāja” will take part in the LIBL championship in the 2020/21 season, as also seven Estonian teams – Tallinn “Kalev” / “Cramo”, Rapla “Avis Utilitas”, “Parnu Sadam”, “University of Tartu”, Rakvere “Tarvas”, Tallinn “Kalev” / TLU and “TalTech”.

In the first Latvian-Estonian joint league tournament in the 2018/2019 season, Ventspils won 15 teams in both the main tournament and the Final 4, but the 2019/2020 season remained unfinished, ranking first in the main tournament, which was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. occupying “VEF Rīga”, the second – “Ogrei”, the third – “Kalev” / “Cramo” and the fourth – “Ventspils”.

In the central match of the round “Liepāja” in the stadium “Daugava” with 1: 0 (0: 0) was in the lead against RFS, when after the second time the stadium lighting equipment went out, the game was stopped at one end of the field.

The first dangerous moment at one of the team’s goals was in the 21st minute, when the most dangerous man of the guests, Darko Lemajičs, did not hit the head in front of the goal.

In the 26th minute, the home keeper’s goalkeeper Oleksandrs Ribka pulled the ball out of the top corner.

With 42 minutes played, Artūrs Karašausks went down in a suspected penalty situation after a challenge from the visitors’ right fullback, but the referee, having a good line of sight, signaled to keep playing.

The visitors’ central defense should have had no trouble clearing the pass to 51 minutes. However, after playing about ten minutes in the second half, the game was interrupted for half an hour due to power supply problems.

When the match resumed, the home team scored almost immediately. The visitors made a mistake, but the team from Liepaja put the ball into the back of the net with 1 meter 0, 0: Mārtiņš Ķiguru.

In the 62 minute, Jevgenijs Berjozkins hit the ball hard from the edge of the penalty box, directing the ball to Kučer.

In the 63rd minute, Eduards Tīdenbergs could not continue due to injury.

In the 67th minute, the spotlights went out again at the end of the field, where the RFS gate was located, when the teams went to the changing rooms for the second time due to technical reasons.

After about another 20 minutes, the game was stopped altogether.

In the match with the “Riga” team “Liepāja”, the series of five victories was interrupted in the previous round. In contrast, RFS defeated Spartaku after two draws and returned to the victory trail.

“Liepāja” had Artūrs Karašausks in the last three games without scoring a goal, who had previously scored a total of six goals in four consecutive draws.

Due to the accumulated warnings, both teams had a shortage. Ingars Sarmis Stuglis could not help Liepāja residents, but Sedriks Kuadio did not help Rigans.

RFS celebrated convincing victories in the first two mutual games of this season – 5: 2 and 3: 0.

In the game for the fourth place in the tournament table in Jurmala “Spartaks” Sloka stadium with 1: 2 (1: 1) gave in to “Ventspils”.

The match in Jūrmala started “stormy”. In the 14th minute, Kaspars Svārups scored, but he was in the back, not including the goal. Three minutes later, after Svārupa’s clever pass, he was pushed back into the home side’s penalty area with his left foot from an excellent position hit by Jevgenijs Kozlovs.

However, a minute later, in a similar situation, the former Ventspils resident Nauris Bulvītis hit the ball from the goalkeeper’s field from the goalkeeper’s field with his left foot. The ball first hit the crossbar, then arrived at the goal – 1: 0.

At the end of both halves, Kozlov stood out. He scored in the 41st and 83rd minutes, increasing the number of goals scored by Spartak to five this season and to nine in the Super League season, rising to fifth place in the league’s sniper list.

Together, the two teams earned seven yellow cards in this match, with the home team collecting one more

Jūrmalnieki had been in the Super League without victories before Saturday’s fight for more than a month and a half, suffering three losses in five matches and fighting twice in a draw. “Spartaks” has lost minimally to both flags from Riga in the last two games (1: 2).

In contrast, “Ventspils” was in a series of four losses, losing points only to the leading three teams in the last month. In the previous match against “Valmiera” at the end of the game, the goal was scored, but the joys were short, because the Vidzeme players quickly responded with the same, and the fight ended in a draw.

Due to the warnings, Giorgi Mchedlišvili could not help the Kurzeme club.

“Ventspils” won in the first round with 3: 1, but in the second match the draw ended 1: 1. Three of the four Ventspils goals were scored by former Jevgenijs Kozlovs from these games.

After 41 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by Kozlovs might have resulted in another goal for Kozlov. An excellent pass from the middle of the field, performed by Krisa Marlon Ondonga-Mbā, allowed the Russian legionary to run in solitude with the guest goalkeeper Konstantin Mahnovski, elegantly blaming the ball over him – 1: 1.

At the “Daugavpils” stadium, “Celtnieks” beat the “Metta” team 1: 0 (0: 0) in a more cautious football game.

The only goal was scored in the 77th minute by Maksims Toņiševs, who came on the field instead of Andrejs Kovaļovs only eight minutes ago. He also managed to get a yellow card, earning it in the 86th minute for sharpness against Raimonds Krolls. After the goal, the home team plays the ball accurately, accurately and patiently and does not allow the guests to play.

Already in the 73rd minute, Lukas Vapne had earned a red card in the guest ranks.

It was a game of not remaining in the penultimate place, which means participating in the playoffs of remaining in the league with the second best team in the first league.

In the Daugavpils Super League, he had lost three games in a row and failed in seven of the last eight fights. The Metta team had two losses in a row and six in the last seven duels.

The Daugavpils team celebrated convincing victories (4: 2 and 4: 1) in the first two rounds. In the first round, Namdī Ofors stood out twice for the Latgalians, who is now in the RFS team.

It has already been reported that “Riga” conceded “Riga” with 0: 2 (0: 1) at the Jānis Lūša Stadium of the Zemgale Olympic Center.

Stefans Miloševičs scored the victory goal in the second minute of the match.

The home side worked hard to get through the middle and as a result, had a good chance of getting one back as Golu tried lifting the ball over keeper.

In the 70th minute, Jacob Hora played cold-bloodedly and masterfully. He got a great pass that put him one on one with goalkeeper Vladislav Kurakin. In one move Hora passed the goalkeeper and sent the ball in the upper part of the goal over Jēkabs Šteinburg – 2: 0.

Jelgavnieki had celebrated two consecutive victories in the Super League before Saturday’s game, beating the team of “Metta” and “Daugavpils” in the tournament table of their closest followers. During the national team break, “Jelgava” parted ways with seven footballers, among whom is also the best goal scorer of this season’s unit Jurijs Zaharkivs.

Meanwhile, “Riga” had won four in a row, approaching the third Latvian champion title in a row.

In the previous two rounds, “Riga” won both games with 3: 0, with six different football players standing out.

“Valmiera” in the stadium of Vidzeme Olympic Center destroyed “Tukums 2000” / TSS unit with 5: 0 (3: 0), designing “hattrick” for Eriks Punculs, in which he directly participated in the creation of four goals.

In addition, Punculs came on to replace Mohamed Viktor Djan in the 21st minute.

The first two “goals” were scored by Georges Taisheira in the 24th and 27th minutes, assisting Puncula in the first case. Teiheira also hit the gate structure, aiming at the far corner of the gate.

After that, it was Puncula’s turn to score, which he did with great excitement in the 43rd, 50th and 73rd minutes.

In addition, Luka Silagadze missed a penalty for the 79th minute. He hesitated after a long shot, but the goalkeeper Ivan Baturins did not fall and tricked the ball into the goal.

“Riga” takes the first place in the tournament table with 60 points in 22 matches, which is nine points ahead of RFS, which has played 21 games. 39 points are for “Valmiera”, 34 points – for “Ventspils”, 29 points for 21 games – “Liepāja”, but 28 points – for “Spartak”. “Jelgava” is further with 21 points, “Daugavpils” has accumulated 19 points, “Metta” has gained three less, while “Tukums 2000” / TSS has reached eight points.

This season, ten teams will start in the Super League, which is one more than last year and two more than yesterday. Also, this season in the Super League, the legionnaire limit has been raised to eight players. This means that there must be at least three players prepared for the association on the court at the same time. Last year, the limit was five foreign players.

As in many other countries, after the coronavirus break in the regulations of the Premier League championship in the 2020 season, the number of permitted player substitutions has been increased from three to five.

Due to the three-month forced break, three will be played instead of the four planned laps this season.

Last year, “Riga” was crowned Latvian champion, but RFS won its first trophy in the history of the club, which won the national cup.