The successful performance of the Latvian junior hockey team under the age of 20 (U20) at the world championship in Ottawa raised the question of which young players would be ready to fight for a place in the Latvian national team led by Harijas Vītoliņš already this spring.
The head coach of the U20 national team, Artis Ābols, named two without thinking. “Those would be Erik (Mateiko, forward) and Linard (Feldberg, goalkeeper). Maybe Pēteris (Bulāns, defender) could also be invited. Speaking of Erik Mateiko, he won’t be able to. I had a conversation with Rudolph (Kalvītis, general manager of the national team) about this topic. .I said that I would like to see him in a series where he has the opportunity to show himself, similar to what the Slovaks did in the Beijing Olympics in the first shift, Slafkovski, who conditionally does not know where he came from.” At the time of the 2022 Olympic Games, young Slovak striker Juraj Slafkovski was only 17 years old, he played in Finland as part of the Turku TPS team in the U20 Championship and SM Leagueand nothing was really known about him. Slafkovskis gained recognition at the Beijing Olympics, scoring seven (!) goals in seven games. Already in the next season, Juraj played for the NHL team Montreal Canadiens in the composition.
Jelgava hockey club Zemgale student Mateiko changed teams after the World U20 Championship, in the Quebec Junior League (QMJHL) from St. John’s Sea Dogs moving to Rimouski Oceanic. It is a team with ambitions
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