Vitālijs Samoilovs (russian: Виталий Анатольевич Самойлов; born 17 April 1962) is a former Latvian professional ice hockey player who played in the Soviet Hockey League. Ethnically Russian, he played for

Dynamo Riga Dinamo Riga ( lv, Rīgas Dinamo) is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It is a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LLU. The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of ...

and Sokil Kyiv. The best season of his career was 1987-88, in which he made the Soviet National Team. He was the third-string goaltender at the

1987 Canada Cup The 1987 Labatt Canada Cup was a professional international ice hockey tournament held from August 28 to September 15, 1987. The finals took place in Montreal on September 11 and Hamilton, on September 13 and September 15, and were won by Team C ...

and didn't appear in any games. He did, however, play in one game for the gold-medal-winning Soviet team at the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games (french: XVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Calgary 1988 ( bla, Mohkínsstsisi 1988; sto, Wîchîspa Oyade 1988 or ; cr, Otôskwanihk 1998/; srs, Guts� ...

. Also that season, he backstopped Riga to a surprising second-place finish in the Championship League. The following year, however, an injury caused him to lose his starting job in Riga to upstart Arturs Irbe and he never again regained his top form.

References

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Vitālijs Samoilovs profile
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Latvian Olympic Committee The Latvian Olympic Committee ( or LOK) is a non-profit organization that is the National Olympic Committee for Latvia. Its headquarters are in Riga. History The Committee was created on 23 April 1922. In 1923 it received a notice from Internat ...

1962 births Living people Dinamo Riga players Latvian ice hockey goaltenders Olympic medalists in ice hockey Sokil Kyiv players Ice hockey people from Riga Ice hockey players at the 1988 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for the Soviet Union Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR {{USSR-Winter-Olympic-medalist-stub