A historic success and a test of character passed in an important match for reaching the next round. The Latvian junior hockey team under the age of 20 (U20) in the elite group of the world championship (WC) sensationally beat the hosts 3:2 in the post-game shootout in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, lost to the USA (1:5) and Finland (0:3), but in the fight for came back from 0:2 to enter the elimination stage and defeated Germany in extra time with 4:3. Sweden will face in the quarter-finals. The game starts on Thursday at 19:00 Latvian time.
The aftertaste of the second game day of the tournament sweetened life in the camp of the Latvian national team, while the arrows of criticism hurt the host Canadians. The country’s largest print media Toronto Star the headline was short and succinct: “Devastating!”, while social media was unanimous about the surprising outcome, divided only on whether it was one of the biggest upsets ever in World Junior Championship history, or the biggest upset for either team.
In games where one team is a clear favorite, and in this case it was Canada, it’s important for the other team to keep the balance on the scoreboard as long as possible. After that, already in the final part, all kinds of twists and turns are possible. In the 25th minute of the game, after a careless game in the numerical majority and a member of the opposing team slipping out alone against the goalkeeper Feldberg, Latvian juniors ended up 0:1 behind. Realizing the numerical majority, Mateiko made it 1:1 in the 54th minute, but a minute later the Canadians regained the lead, and it seemed that they would not be able to fight back a second time.
Read the whole article in newspapers Day in the issue of Thursday, January 2! If you want to continue reading the newspaper in printed form, you can subscribe to it+