ARENA RIGA – Dinamo Riga’s playoff series against Torpedo is assured to go to at least a sixth game back in Riga, following the maroon’s 4-1 loss at home on Sunday evening.

Coming off a marathon game on Saturday night in which Pekka Rautakallio’s men finally prevailed in the 34th minute of overtime, the two teams returned to the ice on Sunday where Dinamo Riga hoped to move within one game of the Western Conference semi-finals.

However prior to the start of the game, the home side were dealt three blows with Chris Holt and Aleksandrs Nizivijs both declared unfit to play whilst Martins Cipulis was forced to sit out a one game ban following a dangerous check enforced an evening earlier.

Having his first start in goal in a postseason game, Maris Jucers hardly had the beginning he would have envisioned, with Juuso Hietanen putting the puck past him in the sixth minute.

Dmitry Makarov followed suit in the 14th minute, doubling the Torpedo lead.

With Torpedo picking up their next two goals in the first five minutes of the second period through Martin Thornberg and Kim Hirschovits, the situation became farcical with nine players serving out penalty minutes before the frame came to an end.

Finally with the second period coming to a close, Dinamo Riga managed to get on the score sheet through captain Sandis Ozolins.

Providing the assist was Jamie Lundmark.

However it would never be enough and with the third period resembling the second in terms of players being sent to the penalty box, the men in maroon could have been forgiven for allowing their thoughts to already drift ahead to game 5 on the road on Tuesday.