Panter is finally toppled, shifting tides mark the New Year in the Optibet Hokeja Liga

It’s a brand new year, and some teams in the top tier of Latvian hockey are eager to prove they’re brand new teams, too. The first few games of 2025 have already been played, and the two-time Latvian champions HK Zemgale/LBTU have finally managed to topple the “new Northern powerhouse” – Tallinn-based HC Panter – from the very top of the Baltic standings. However, they can’t afford to slip up now, as the defending champions, Mogo, are rapidly approaching. Elsewhere, the approach of the New Year signaled a shift in tides for teams near the bottom of the table. With over half of the 2024/25 season having already been played, the teams at the bottom of the league standings are starting to make a push for the playoff spots, featuring an especially fierce battle between the Riga-based Prizma and the current Lithuanian champions – the legendary Energija Elektrenai – for fourth place in the league.

The cooled-down Panter is finally dethroned!

HC Panter, the newest team to have joined the Optibet Hokeja Līga and the only representative from Estonia, have turned out to be a massive surprise in the league for all the good reasons. While they started the season weak and shaky, with Zemgale having smashed the team in their home arena in Tallinn with a score of 7-1, they have bared their fangs and spent most of the season up to this point trying to prove that they belong as one of the strongest teams in the league. With most of Panter’s games finishing with a goal differential of just one, they’ve shown to be a tricky, gritty team that can’t be easily underestimated. In late October, I wrote an article focused entirely on HC Panter, as they surprisingly managed to stand atop the Optibet Hokeja Liga. It’s a testament to their ability that it took until 21st December – when Zemgale defeated Prizma with a score of 6-1 – for the Estonian side to finally get dethroned.
However, no matter how good the start or middle of the season you have, it can all be for naught if you don’t finish strong. Panter’s constant close games against Energija, one of the weaker teams, had already started to raise eyebrows, and January’s games against Rigas HS have been no different. Panter has played three games already in January, facing off against just Rigas HS all three times. Each of these games went to extra time, with Panter taking 3-2 overtime victories in the two games in Riga, while losing 3-4 at home in the shootout.
It’s no surprise that Rigas HS, which currently finds themselves second-last in the league, is struggling this season, as almost all of the players from last season have moved on to other teams. However, it is unacceptable for a team competing for first place in the league to struggle this much against the junior side. Nonetheless, such is the case with the current second-place holders, HC Panter Tallinn. Even more notable is the results of both Zemgale and Mogo against the very same Rigas HS. Mogo has a combined score of 34-6 over the span of 4 meetings, while Zemgale’s won their 2 games with a score of 15-2. What’s going to follow this weak stretch will make or break Panter’s shot at first place in the regular season. The good news – or bad, if Panter’s performance isn’t up to snuff – is that their next four games are against the defending champions, Mogo, which has the same amount of points. Even just a fifty-fifty split will be enough for Panter to continue their battle for first place, but any more points for Mogo and they will be looking at a third place finish in the regular season.

Zemgale’s offense has started to bloom mid-way through the season

Zemgale has sneakily found themselves in first place at the start of the new year, with their offense starting to bloom, unlike coach Artis Abols’ usual defensive-minded style. Forward Kevins Stradnieks, who got called up to the Latvian U20 national team for the WJC last season, has finally made the step up that the team wanted from him over the past few seasons. With 13 goals and 22 assists over the 22 games played this season, his 35 points not only break his previous Optibet Hokeja Liga record of 34 points last season, but currently are also enough for him to be the top scorer in the league so far. Stradnieks has been able to come up big when it matters, and his play is going to be vital for Zemgale to retain their first place in the league.
Zemgale’s offense isn’t comprised of *just* Stradnieks, however. Three more of their players – Gricinskis, Millers and Begovs – find themselves with over 20 points this season, with 29, 23 and 22 points respectively. Also of note is forward Peteris Purmalis, whose 13 goals scored tie him for top goal scorer on the team alongside Kevins Stradnieks. The defense has done very well too, as the team has allowed just 42 goals against over their 22 games played this season.

The notably young goaltending line has performed admirably as well. 19-year-old Aksels Ozols has been their best goalie with a .922 sv% over 11 games, while 22-year-old Mariuss Bajaruns-Galejs hasn’t been too shabby either, with a .909 sv% over his 10 starts. One of the most talented young Latvian goaltenders, 17-year-old Patriks Plumins, has also been given 3 starts, with a .905 sv% and even picking up an assist.

Zemgale has a relatively tough stretch ahead after a very easy 9-1 dismantling of Energija, with two games against their direct competitor Mogo separated by a game against Rigas HS. Two wins against their rivals for first place would do wonders for the team, though the 1-point-gap between them and Mogo is still incredibly shaky, especially as Mogo has played 3 games less than Zemgale has. In any case, unlike how unproven Panter’s ability to battle for the Optibet Hokeja Liga championship is, Zemgale will be a fierce enemy to any team they meet in the play-offs, and it might be a series between them and Mogo for the title of Latvian & Baltic champions at the end of this season.

Mogo has it all, except for first place!

Defending champions Mogo seem to have it all this season – the best defense in the league, the best goaltending in the league, the second-best offense in the league – yet the only thing they’re missing as of right now is first place in the league. However, that may change soon – just 1 point separates them from the first-placed Zemgale, with Mogo holding a seemingly insurmountable 3-game advantage.

Just like in previous years, Mogo is relying on Gints Meija, Elviss Zelubovskis, Deivids Sarkanis and Karlis Ozolins to do the most damage offensively, while veteran defenseman Krisjanis Redlihs & Mogo legend, goalie Henrijs Ancs set up an incredibly difficult defense to overcome. As even the Continental Cup has shown, however, the projected champions have shown their lapses of concentration at times – a lack of effort throughout the entire tournament led to them failing to advance from the second round. In the Optibet Hokeja Liga, a slip up in the second game of the season against Prizma and a 2-5 defeat against Panter have been their only losses so far, but that may soon change as they have multiple games coming up against both Zemgale and Panter soon.

It’s no secret that Mogo’s goal this season was retaining the Latvian and Baltic championship after having gone through a four-year drought before defeating Zemgale for the title last season, but now, as just over half of the season has been played, we’ll truly be able to see if Mogo is up to the task, or if we should be looking forward to a different team hoisting the champions cup this year.

Prizma and Energija in a scrappy contest for fourth place

A great start to the season for Prizma – a win against defending champions Mogo – quickly devolved into a messy and scrappy battle for fourth place against the Lithuanian champions, Energija Elektrenai. The team is very obviously stagnating, having finished 5th and 4th over the past two years, and, with no real path to developing the team on the cards, they’re slated to finish fourth once more. Of the three foreigners on the team, only goaltender Marshall Murphy has gotten real playing time — a whopping… 9 games in the 23 played by the team. 18-year-old Slovak Forward Jakub Sporina has spent the entire season playing for the Prizma 2nd team in the JAHL/1. Liga, while 20-year-old Ukrainian forward Artem Danfort has 1 assist in 4 games for Prizma. Even so, Murphy’s performances haven’t been spectacular – a mere .860 sv% and an average goals against of 5.15 cast a massive shadow over his good performances. Of the major domestic player signings in the off-season, the signing of Vitalijs Pavlovs, who played for the Fife Flyers in the EIHL a season earlier, proved to be a failure, with the forward putting up just 3 points in 10 games before leaving the team to play in the German 4th division. Roberts Jekimovs and Renars Cipruss proved to be good signings on the offensive end, however, as the two have picked up 23 and 13 points respectively. Ultimately, it is hard for any goaltender to be spectacular when their entire team is the opposite of spectacular.

Nevertheless, the 21-year-old Janis Sidass has become a good starting goaltender for Prizma, and entered the role surprisingly well. Having played in 19 games this season, he’s allowed just 2.8 goals against on average and has a sv% of .912. It’s clear that if Prizma wants any hope to succeed this season, they’ll have to rely on Sidass playing lights-out. They have the ability to always put at least one or two past the enemy goaltender, but their defensive end leaves many questions to be answered. Prizma can definitely hope for better tides with their upcoming schedule featuring games against weaker sides – Energija, Hockey Punks and Rigas HS. While they’re looking to finish in 4th place, there’s nothing they’ve done that would truly suggest a shot at upsetting the apple cart in the playoffs.

Energija is the best-performing Lithuanian team this season, which, unfortunately, doesn’t say much. Stuck in 5th place, the team’s offense is led by veteran forward Tadas Kumeliauskas with 24 points in 21 games played. Unfortunately, after Kumeliauskas, there isn’t really any offense to speak of other than Aivaras Bendzius (10 goals + 5 assists) and Dovydas Laimutis (8 goals + 3 assists). With the third-worst offense and the third-worst defense in the league, they rightfully sit in 5th place out of the 7 teams participating this year. While goalie Arkadijus Grigaravicius-Reyzin has tried his hardest keeping the games close, putting up a .892 sv%, this is still a far cry from the old Energija Elektrenai that used to be competitive in the Latvian league.

Energija finds themselves with a tough schedule ahead – while they will get relatively easier games against Vilnius and Prizma, they will be followed up by games against Mogo, Zemgale and Panter. It’ll be relatively difficult for the team to bridge the three point gap between them and Prizma.

Vilnius and Rigas HS continue to struggle

The bottom two teams this year – Vilnius Hockey Punks & Rigas HS – have produced next to no stories, not even headlines, this season. That’s why it was an incredible surprise at the start of the new year that Rigas HS, one of the worst teams in the league this year, managed to bring Panter, one of the leading teams in the league, to overtime three times in a row – and even win once! It shows that there is a lot of fighting spirit in the young team, of which multiple players will get called up to the Latvian Under-18s National Team. Despite that, they just aren’t ready this season. Their biggest talents have been Gustavs Spigulis and Maksims Saperins with 17 points each, while goaltenders Arturs Skrebutens and Ivans Kufterins have done relatively well, with an .892 sv% and .891 sv% respectively. They’re not *great* numbers, but for a young team with an average age of just 17.3 years, they show that the goaltending duo is at the very least ready for this league. All in all, despite having the worst offense in the league with just 52 goals scored, they only find themselves in second-last place, as their defense is just barely better than the one displayed by Vilnius.

The Vilnius Hockey Punks have had an atrocious season. Just 54 goals scored, and an insane 132 goals allowed over 23 games played, leaves a lot to be desired. Finnish forward Alex Maunula (15GP, 7G+7A) is their biggest talent offensively, though besides Maunula only Ilja Cetvertak (23GP, 5G+12A) and Timonas Mazulis (22GP, 8G+8A) deserve to be noted. Their starting goaltending duo has put up horrible numbers in the league so far, with Simas Baltrunas at .867 sv% and Artur Pavliukov at .871 sv%. It’s clear that the Lithuanian teams aren’t ready for this level yet – at the very least, not with the talent currently available to them right now – and there’s been quite a few questions raised by the public about the further involvement of Lithuanian teams in the league, especially due to the Estonian Panter’s high success in their first two seasons.
They can definitely turn this around slowly season by season, and, for example, the Lithuanian U20 NT featured multiple defensemen from Energija & Vilnius. There is talent here, but it has to be nurtured and built on year-by-year, in the hopes that one day we have a truly competitive Baltic league where the “Baltic Champion” title isn’t just automatically handed to the best Latvian team. With the return of Liepaja confirmed, as well as the potential return of Daugavpils & Kurbads on the horizon, we might be re-entering a golden era of both Latvian domestic club hockey, as well as Baltic hockey as a whole.

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