VIDEO ⟩ Latvia’s U-18 hockey players beat their Slovakian peers in an exciting battle

Latvia’s goal was guarded by Mikus Vecvanags, who saved 31 shots.

On Thursday, in the first game, the Latvians lost 1:3 to the Finnish hosts, while the Slovaks capitulated to the Americans 0:9.

In the continuation of the tournament, Latvia will meet the USA in subgroup A on Sunday, and Norway will play on Monday. Sweden, Czech Republic, Canada, Kazakhstan and Switzerland are competing in subgroup B.

In preparation for the World Championship, the U-18 national team played the U-20 tournament in Denmark in November, held a camp in Riga in December, and competed in the U-18 Four Nations tournament in Denmark in February.

Meanwhile, before the championship, the national team coached by Oleg Sorokin played five test matches – on April 6 and 7, they lost 1:2 in penalty kicks at home and defeated the Polish U-18 national team 5:1, while on April 11 and 12, they played away a 1:2 defeat and a 3:2 victory against the Czech U-18 national team. In the last test match, the Latvian U-18 national team already lost 0:4 to their Swedish peers in Finland on Monday.

The quarter-final matches of the World Championship will take place on May 2, the semi-finals on May 4, and the medal winners will be determined on May 5.

Herbert Vasiļjevs, Maksims Širokovs and goalkeeping coach Reinis Repšs will assist Sorokin in his work with the Latvian U-18 hockey team this season. On the other hand, Raivis Miezāns will take care of the physical training, while Artūrs Barovskis will perform the duties of the video coach.

List of Latvian U-18 hockey team players:

goalkeepers – Mikus Vecvanags (HS “Riga”), Nils Roberts Mauriņš (Sodertalje, Sweden), Dilans Birkāns (Odense, Denmark);

defenders – Krists Retenais, Oskar Nils Briedis, Krišjānis Sārts (all – HS “Riga”), Harijs Cjunskis (Lugano, Switzerland), Rolands Naglis (Bern, Switzerland), Darel Uljanskis (AIK, Sweden), Bruno Petrovič (“Alberta Academy”, Canada);

forwards – Antons Macijevskis, Edvīns Bērzins, Maksims Pumpiņš, Aleksandrs Zaprivoda, Dmitrijs Diļevka, (all – HS “Rīga”), Olivers Mūrnieks (“Mogo”/LSPA), Bruno Osmanis, Nils Vanags (both – “Bojorkloven”, Sweden) , Markus Kristian Sieradzki, Maksim Kharitoncev (both – “Mora”), Karlis Flugin (“Oskarshamn”, Sweden), Daniel Serkin (“Thurgau”, Switzerland), Martin Klaucans (New Jersey “Rockets”, USA).