Deniss Smirnovs | Photo: Geneva Servette
Switzerland
The club of the Swiss Hockey League (NL) in Geneva “Servette” has extended the contract with the Latvian striker Denis Smirnov, the club reports. The agreement with 22-year-old Smirnov, who can play with a Swiss license, has been extended until the end of next season. He is 15 years old at the Geneva Club and will spend his ninth season as a third professional.
Smirnov is a two-time Swiss U-20 champion and NL has been quite productive, scoring eight goals in 46 games in the 2019/2020 season and returning nine assists. In total, Smirnov scored 13 goals in 141 NL games and made 23 assists.
Smirnov represented the Latvian youth national team and played in the Beijing Olympic Games in February as part of the national team. Last week, Servette also extended its contract with Latvian defender Sandis Smons for one season. Forward Nils Sējējs and defender Nauris Sējējs are also under the auspices of the Geneva Club. Servette ranks eighth in the NL standings table with 73 points in 47 games.
Germany
Latvian defender Ralph Freiberg lost his debut in the German Hockey League (DEL) on Friday. Freiberg’s Roosters team lost 2: 3 (1: 1, 0: 0, 1: 1, 0: 1) to the EG hockey players in Düsseldorf overtime.
Freibergs spent 19 minutes and seven seconds on the court, during which he scored once and scored a positive efficiency factor of +1. Freibergs spent the first half of the season in the Continental Hockey League (KHL) team in Riga “Dinamo”. Roosters, with 54 points in 43 games, takes the 13th place in the tournament table, but in the last 15-team competition, the defender is the Penguins of Krefeld, represented by Artūrs Kuldas, who has scored 48 points in 42 battles.
IIHF Continental Cup
The Polish team Cracovia from Krakow, represented by defender Imants Leščovs, won the first leg of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) Continental Cup final on Friday. Krakow hockey players beat Kazakhstan’s “Saryarka” team from Karaganda, represented by Edgar Siksna, Denis Fyodorov and Danila Larionov, with a score of 2: 1 (0: 1, 2: 0, 0: 0).
Leshchov scored three times and finished the fight with a neutral efficiency. The strap had two shots on the goal and a negative utility of -1, Fyodorov did not mark in the statistics columns, but Larionov has not entered this tournament. On Saturday, Cracovia will meet with the host of the tournament, the Danish team Aalborg Pirates, and on Sunday there will be a duel between the housewives and Saryarka. The Belarusian team “Gomel” was disqualified from the tournament after the IIHF disqualification.
In the final stage, the Polish and Danish teams are fighting for a ticket to the 2022/2023 season IIHF Champions League tournament. Due to its remote geographical location, Saryarka cannot qualify for the Champions League. Last year’s Latvian champion “Olimp” / “Venta 2002” stopped in the third round. The IIHF Continental Cup was not held last season.
