HK Mogo

HK Mogo are an ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. They are members of the Latvian Hockey Higher League and also compete for the Latvian Cup. HK Mogo was founded in 2014 by Mogo Finance and joined the Latvian Hockey Higher League in the same year. The team won both the regular season title and the playoffs during their first season and as a result qualified for the 2015–16 IIHF Continental Cup. In 2016 HK Mogo joined the newly revived Latvian Cup after defeating HK Kurbads in the final. Two seasons team played their home games out of the Inbox.lv ledus halle, since October 2016 team has its own arena - Mogo ledus halle.
==History==
HK Mogo was founded in 2014 by the Latvian company Mogo Finance and joined the Latvian Hockey Higher League for the start of the 2014–15 season. Mogo finished their debut regular season in first place with 73 points, seven points ahead of the second placed HK Liepāja. As a result of their first-place finish in the regular season Mogo advanced straight to the playoff semifinals, bypassing the first round. In the semifinals Mogo came up against HK Zemgale who had defeated HK Prizma Riga in the first round. Mogo lost their opening game of the semifinals 0–1 however went on to win the next three in the best-of-five series and advance to the finals. For the finals the format changed to a best-of-seven series and Mogo's opponent was HK Kurbads who had defeated HK Liepāja in the semifinals to advance. Mogo again lost their opening game of the series before winning the next two. Kurbads leveled the series at two-all in Game 4 however Mogo won the next two games to claim the series and their first playoff title. As a result of winning the Latvian Hockey Higher League playoffs Mogo qualified for the 2015–16 IIHF Continental Cup where they entered in the second round. Mogo was drawn in Group B with CH Jaca, HDD Jesenice and Miskolci Jegesmedve. Mogo finished the round-robin Group B tournament in first place after winning all three of their games and advanced to the third round where they were drawn in Group D against HC Asiago, Herning Blue Fox and Yertis Pavlodar. Mogo failed to win any of their three games in the third round, finishing in last place and failing to qualify for the Super final round.
In 2015 it was announced the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation had restarted the Latvian Cup competition and that it would be open to all Latvian Hockey Higher League and 1.Līga clubs. Mogo, along with HK Kurbads, advanced straight to the second round of the 2015–16 competition as a result of being the finalists in the 2014–15 Latvian Hockey Higher League playoffs. Mogo were drawn against Daugavpils/LDZ Cargo of the 1.Līga who had defeated Valmieras HK/BSS in the first round. The team won both of their games against Daugavpils, finishing with an aggregate score of 17–3 and advanced to the semifinals against HK Zemgale/LLU. Mogo defeated Zemgale 7–1 in the first game of the semifinals and then won the second game at home 4–3 to advance to the final of the Latvian Cup against HK Kurbads. Mogo won the 2015–16 Latvian Cup after defeating HK Kurbads 4–3 at Arena Riga. Kurbads lead in the first two periods of the game with the second period ending 2–3. In the third period Mogo scored in the fifty second minute to tie the game and then scored again in the fifty fifth minute to take the score to 4–3. Mogo defended their first lead of the game until the end of the third period to win their first Latvian Cup title.
==Season by season results==
Season 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	Finish	Playoff 	
2014–15 Latvian Hockey League	30	23	1	2	4	160	82	73	1st 	Won final (HK Kurbads)	
===Tournaments===
*2015–16 IIHF Continental Cup – 4th in Group D of the Third Round. Failed to advance.
*2015–16 Latvian Cup – 1st. Defeated HK Kurbads 4–3 in the final.
==Players and personnel==
===Current roster===
Season 2016/2017
==== Goalies ====
* 33 Henrijs Ančs
* 38 Renārs Kazānovs
==== Defense ====
* 2 Agris Saviels
* 5 Andrejs Lavrenovs 
* 10 Sergejs Durdins (C)
* 12 Jānis Brakšs
* 24 Sergejs Tjoluškins
* 43 Ričards Birziņš
* 55 Krišs Lipsbergs
==== Forwards ====
* 7 Rustams Begovs (A)
* 13 Edgars Kurmis
* 15 Juris Ziemiņš
* 17 Elvis Želubovskis 
* 18 Jānis Ozoliņš
* 21 Ronalds Cinks
* 22 Andris Siksnis
* 25 Andrejs Smirnovs
* 28 Vladimirs Mamonovs (A)
* 37 Aldis Popens
* 69 Rūdolfs Prūsis
* 94 Emīls Potāpovs
===Head coaches===
*Mihails Beskašnovs, 2014–2015
*Oļegs Sorokins, 2015–present
===General managers===
*Staņislavs Kravčenko, 2014–2015
==References==
==External links==
*Official Facebook page 
Category:Established in 2014
Category:Latvian Hockey League teams