The Latvian men´s elite league championships ended 17th of April. The new champion of Latvia is RTU / Inspecta, which won Lekrings with result 6-4 in the 5th Final.
Since Latvia is organising the EFC Final round 2010 RTU / Inspecta received also a direct spot to the EFC Final round.
The Final series were played with best of seven system so four victories were needed for the championship. Before the 5th Final RTU was leading the Final series 3-1 so only one victory separated them from gold medals.
The 5th match started with Lekrings scoring quickly in the beginning and they also controlled the first period. However, RTU/Inspecta played better the last minutes of the first period.They scored three goals in the last four minutes and after this RTU took the charge of the match and were able to keep it until the end.
The final result of the match was 4-6 (1-3, 1-2, 2-1) for RTU. With the victory they confirmed the first champion title in the club´s history. The best players of the teams were awarded Martins Rajeckis and Artis Raitums.
After the prize ceremonies, a press conference was held in which the coaches and key players told about plans and results of the whole season.
Ainars Juskevics (RTU/Inspecta) “At first I want to thank team “Lekrings” from the final series which was one of the most exciting which has ever seen in Latvian league. Every play-off series was different for us, with different tasks. As for the final, winning cups weighted our side because we have succeeded far better use of goal opportunities. Also “Lekrings” had a lot of chances, which they were not able to utilise. Thank you all guys, no one in particular would not want to highlight, if only the second team goalkeeper Valerijs Bodnieks, who in the last two games played very strongly, helping to win the champion title.”
Normungs Grunckis (Lekrings) “Overall we spent the season successfully. We had to put three goals. The first – the Champion´s Cup semi-final, what we did. Then had to win the regular season, which we coped. Finally, it should have won the Latvian championship, but this task unfortunately can not handle. Season started with a slight change in composition, in presence came the young players who gave a lot during the season positively and successfully passed the composition. In final series each match were separate episodes, which played a very bad mistake for which the opponent was fined. Meanwhile ourselves really did not know how to use rivals´ failures. We have always got lost in similar results and it certainly did not encourage any form of performance improvements.”
Text and photos: Latvian Floorball Union
