Ģirts Ankipāns (born 29 November 1975) is a retired

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player and coach. Currently he serves as the head coach of

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

KHL The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs. It was considered in ...

Career

Playing career

He started his professional ice hockey career in Latvia, where he played for various local teams. During the 1996-97 season, he became the best goal-scorer of the

Latvian Hockey League The Latvian Hockey Higher League (), also known as the Optibet Hockey League () since 2017 due to sponsorship by Optibet, is the top tier league of ice hockey in Latvia. The league is competed by nine teams from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Pr ...

. Next 7 seasons Ankipāns spent playing in German hockey leagues. Before the 2003-04 season, he returned to Latvia and joined

HK Riga 2000 HK Riga 2000 was an ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. The team had played in the LHL since it was founded. In 2004-05 and 2005–06 seasons the club also iced a team in the Belarusian Hockey League, and in 2005-06 finished 3rd. HK Riga 2000 ...

. He played five seasons with

before retiring as player.

International career

He has played for the

Latvia men's national ice hockey team The Latvian men's national ice hockey team represents Latvia in international ice hockey. The team is ranked 10th in the world by IIHF as of 2023. The team is controlled by the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation. Their best ever finish at the World C ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

and

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

World Championships as well as in

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Coaching career

After ending his career as player Ankipāns joined Dinamo coaching staff as assistant coach. On September 28, 2017, he became the interim head coach of the team, replacing

Sandis Ozoliņš Sandis Ozoliņš (born 3 August 1972), commonly spelled Sandis Ozolinsh in North America, is a Latvian former professional ice hockey player and coach. During his career in North America, Ozoliņš was a seven-time NHL All-Star, Stanley Cup cha ...

. On March 29, 2018 Ankipāns was signed as the head coach.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

*LAT totals do not include numbers from the 2005–06 season, and 2006–07 playoffs.

International

References

External links

*
Ģirts Ankipāns
at

* * * 1975 births Living people Dinamo Riga players EHC Neuwied players EV Füssen players EV Landshut players HC Dinamo Minsk players HK Liepājas Metalurgs players HK Riga 2000 players Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics Latvian ice hockey coaches Latvian ice hockey centres Latvian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Lillehammer IK players Olympic ice hockey players for Latvia Ice hockey people from Riga Expatriate ice hockey players in Norway Latvian expatriate ice hockey players in Belarus Latvian expatriate ice hockey players in Germany {{Latvia-icehockey-bio-stub