The Latvian U-20 men’s hockey team ended the World Championship Group A tournament in Denmark on Saturday with a victory.
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Latvia beat Kazakhstan 3: 1 for the second place (1: 0, 1: 0, 1: 1).
After a chaotic start to the game, the Latvians prevailed. Raivis Ansons, Martins Laviņš and Oskars Lapinskis had a good chance to score, but the opponents’ goals were achieved only in the 17th minute, when Darls Dukurs scored 1 – 0 in the majority after Anson and Harry Brant scored.
In the middle of the second period, Kazakh hockey player Abilaihan Suleimenov was dismissed for a dangerous game on the lap of Lapinskis until the end of the game, giving the Latvians a five-minute majority. However, Latvian hockey players mostly played without passing. However, three seconds before the rejection ended, the majority was realized. After Felix Gavars and Laviņš, Ģirts Silkalns scored 2: 0.
The Latvians also scored the third goal in the 52nd minute in the majority, with Gavar playing the opponent’s goalkeeper in front of the goal after the assists of Ralph Bergman and Anson.
The “dry” game for Bruno Brewer was ruined by Nick Fennenko, who in the 53rd minute allowed himself to be “stolen” by his opponent and Nikolai Shulga to send the puck to Brewer’s guarded goal.
Fenenko was recognized as the best hockey player of the game in the Latvian national team.
The most valuable players of the whole tournament in both teams were the goalkeepers – Brūveris and the Kazakh goalkeeper Maksims Pavļenko, who did not play on Saturday.
Anson became the second most successful player in the tournament with nine (4 + 5) performance points.
He conceded only to Alexander Suvorov of Belarus with 11 (4 + 7) points.
Suvorov was named the best striker in the tournament, his teammate Alexei Kolosov was the best goalkeeper, and Norwegian Martin Junsen became the best defender.
At the start of the tournament on Sunday, Latvian juniors beat their peers from Norway 4: 2, on Monday they defeated the Danish home team 5: 4, lost to Belarus 1: 2 in an important match on Wednesday, and defeated Hungary 6: 1 on Thursday.
Kazakhstan’s hockey players have won the championship with losses. After a success of 3: 1 over Hungary, there was a 2: 5 failure against Norway, but a 4: 1 victory over Denmark was followed by a 2: 4 loss to Belarus.
Belarus with 15 points in five battles became the winner of the group, Latvia with 12 points, Norway with nine points, Kazakhstan with six points, Denmark with three points, but Hungary without points.
It has already been reported that in the first game of the day, Belarus secured a place in the elite division when it beat Norway 3: 2 (0: 0, 1: 2, 2: 0) and became the only team in the group to enter the elite division.
Yegor Chezganov scored in the 34th minute, Alexander Suvorov stood out in the 49th minute and Valentin Demchenko scored 42 seconds before the end of the match.
The Norwegians scored 2-0 in the second third with a shot from Martin Junsen and Eskilla Olsen in 65 seconds, but failed to delay the Norwegian victory.
In the fight to stay in the group, Denmark beat Hungary with 4: 0 (0: 0, 1: 0, 3: 0).
Alberti Šioldan scored the first goal in favor of the winners only in the 27th minute, but the Danes won the final third in the last third, scoring two goals from the majority.
In preparation for the responsible tournament, Kārlis Zirņš’s subordinates held the Four Nations Tournament in Jelgava in November, where they played Denmark 3: 2, conceded 1: 2 to the Austrians and 1: 6 capitulated to their Belarusian peers. Test matches with Optibet Hockey League (OHL) teams Zemgale / LLU and Mogo / LSPA were also held on December 6 and 8.
The head coach of the U-20 national team Kārlis Zirnis went to Denmark from the initial list of 43 candidates with 24 hockey players – three goalkeepers, eight defenders and 13 attackers.
Last year, the first division group A championship was not held, but two years ago, the Latvians failed to win the group and return to the elite. At the beginning of 2017, Latvia played in the elite division, but lost in all games, which led to a lower tournament.
Candidates for the Latvian U-20 hockey team:
goalkeepers: Bruno Brūveris (“RoughRiders”, USHL), Kārlis Mežsargs (“Rīga”);
defenders: Daniels Goršānovs, Dāvis Orniņš (both – “Rīga”), Rihards Simanovičs (“Mogo” / LSPA), Harry Brants (“Titan”, QMJHL) Ralf Bergmanis (“Musketeers”, USHL), Bogdan Hodass (“Tigers”), WHL), Nick Fennenko (Drakkar, QMJHL);
attackers: Ģirts Silkalns (“Riga”), Raivis Ansons (“Drakkar”, QMJHL), Darel Dukurs, Oskars Lapinskis (both – “SCL Tigers U20”, Switzerland), Sandis Vilmanis, Dans Ločmelis (both – “Luleo U20”), Sweden), Raimonds Vītoliņš (University of Vermont, NCAA), Daniels Moornieks (RoughRiders, USHL), Henri Ravinskis (QMJHL), Fargo Force (USHL), Martins Lavins (RoughRiders), USHL), Peter Purmalis (‘Musketeers’, USHL), Robert Zalan (Esbjerg U20, Denmark).
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