Team Canada and Jack Ivankovic came into the game seeking revenge after last year’s loss to Team Latvia, and they got it, beating them in overtime, 2-1.
Game Recap
The game started with Latvia dominating, and then they were given a power-play opportunity. Latvia had a lot of shots on goal, but Ivankovic stood tall, and Canada killed off the penalty, and even got a great opportunity, but it was stopped by Nils Maurins.
Canada struggled to find their game throughout the whole first period, and it nearly cost them, as Latvia had a goal called back with a few minutes to go. It was deemed that Markuss Sieradzkis kicked the puck in and that it made no contact with his stick. Ivankovic, for one, got up and started signaling no goal right away.
After the overturned goal, Canada found their game and started to pick it up. To start the second period, there was an interesting call made on the ice. Martins Klaucans met Zayne Parekh up against the boards, and he hit him at an odd angle. Klaucans was given a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for the collision; however, there wasn’t any contact with the head or neck area, as stated as the reason for the penalty.
While the IIHF rules are very strict, that’s still a soft penalty to be called. It doesn’t help that later in the same period, Cole Beaudoin actually made contact with Bruno Osmanis, and nothing was called. On the five-minute power play, Cole Reschny scored and made it 1-0, opening the scoring in the contest.
Canada had control of the third period until Rudolfs Berzkalns scored late to tie the game at one, just like last year. The Latvians had the Canadians on their heels once again.
Right before overtime, Roberts Naudins took a penalty, and Canada capitalized early in the OT period. Gavin McKenna, Parekh, and Michael Hage utilized the wider space at their disposal because of the 4-on-3, and McKenna passed the puck to Hage, who ripped a one-timer past Maurins for the game-winning goal.
What’s Next?
Latvia played their hearts out, and will have to do so again as they have another tough matchup when they play Finland tomorrow. Canada has tomorrow off and will play Denmark on Friday.
