IIHF – Latvia eliminated from Worlds

Despite being outshot and outplayed for the majority of the game, the Latvians kept it close.

Two goals in 16 seconds in the third cut a 4-1 American lead to 4-3 but that was as close as Latvia would get, eventually dropping the game 6-3.

Coming close, as they say, is only good in horseshoes and hand grenades. Alas, close wasn’t enough to push Latvia into a quarter-final spot as the loss on Tuesday means the Latvians finish fifth in Group B and ninth overall. Latvia needed a regulation win to give itself a chance at the playoffs.

“Obviously, we were expecting to be in a quarter-final. I’m just proud of the guys, we never gave up,” said Latvian captain Kaspars Daugavins. “We had some tough situations in this tournament, three back-to-back games, but we always kept battling and, all the way to the last day, we gave ourselves a chance.”

Latvia won bronze one year ago in a thrilling 4-3 overtime win over Team USA.

“Maybe we had a little too much pressure coming here after last year, but we still have to play our game every day,” said Latvian Raivis Ansons. “The first couple of games weren’t our best, and we could have had three points from those games, but we adjusted and brought our best every night. I think we’ll be ready next year to try to make the playoffs.”

Team USA finishes second in Group B and will now await the result of Finland-Switzerland to see who its quarter-final opponent will be.

Against Latvia, Team USA put two pucks in the Latvian net in the first 2:44. First, Brady Tkachuk scored his seventh goal of the tournament when he took a drop pass from Cole Caufield and roofed a shot over the shoulder of Latvian goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis at 1:23.

Just over a minute later, Team USA appeared to take a 2-0 lead when Gavin Bradley jammed in a loose puck in the blue paint following four Gudlevskis saves on Michael Eyssimont. However, Latvian head coach Harijs Vitolins challenged the play and it was determined that Eyssimont interfered with Gudlevskis as he jammed at the puck several times and hit the goaltender’s pads. So it remained 1-0 United States.

Gudlevskis was outstanding in the first, stopping 16 of 18 shots. His best save came off the stick of Johnny Gaudreau, who found open space to the Latvia goaltender’s right, took a perfect pass from Brock Nelson but couldn’t beat Gudlevskis with a quick snap shot.

The Latvian couldn’t stop them all though. At 13:20, Zach Werenski made…