Dinamo Riga (Latvian: Rīgas Dinamo) was a Soviet ice hockey club, based in Riga, Latvia. It was founded in 1946 and disestablished in 1995 as Pārdaugava Rīga. In 1949 to 1963 Dinamo Riga was joined with Daugava sports society which was sponsored by Riga's factories VEF and then RVR.
History of Dinamo Riga
Dinamo Riga was established in 1946, after the re-occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union.[1] It was a part of Dynamo sports society sponsored by the Soviet Ministry of Interior and the national security structures including the KGB. The club was one of the 12 teams which participated in the first Soviet championship in the 1946–47 season.[1] The team's first official game was a victory 5–1 against Dinamo Tallinn in December 1946.[1] The first season was considered as a success, as the team finished the tournament in fourth place.[2] The club's first roster mainly consisted from the players of the interwar Latvian national team.[1]
At first the club had no permanent place, where the home games were held, but since the 1950–51 season, Dinamo started to play home games at Daugava Stadium,[3] but the games still were played on a natural ice rink and the go ahead of the games depended on suitable weather,[3] The situation did not change until the 1960–61 season, when the stadium was heavily reconstructed.[3]
Dinamo Riga changed its name to Daugava Riga before the start of the 1949–50 season, and kept it for a decade, before the team changed its name again.[4] In the mid-fifties, the core of the team - players, which started their careers before the Second World War, started to retire,[5] and the team started to slip further down the table as the years went by.[5]
The club again changed its name and since the 1958–59 season and now was known as RVR Riga,[6] but the name did not last long as the club two years later was renamed once again to Daugava (RVR).[7] The name changes did not help the team's cause and the club slipped to the third division.[8] During the sixties, the club adopted a new player and staff recruiting policy, switching from local talent developing to gathering players from all corners of Soviet Union and even abroad.[5] The club again changed owners and the name of Dinamo Riga was restored before the 1967–68 season,[9] which ended as the worst season in the club's entire history.[8]
In the 1987–88 season, Dinamo Riga had their best finish, losing to CSKA Moscow in the final.
In 1975, Viktor Khatulev of Dinamo Rīga became the first ice hockey player from the Soviet Union drafted by the National Hockey League. He never had a chance to play for the NHL, as Soviet players were not allowed to play for foreign teams. In season 1976–77, Dinamo Rīga star Helmuts Balderis was the leading scorer, had the most goals, and won the best player of the season award (MVP). He was also the goal leader in 1975–76 and the leading scorer in 1983. He scored 333 goals in his Soviet Union League career.
After the end of Soviet Union, the team continued to play until 1995 as a member of the International Hockey League, the successor of the Soviet Hockey League. During this period, the team was called Stars Rīga and later, Pārdaugava Rīga. It was the former team of the Aleksey Nikiforov, coach of many future NHLers.
