Latvian U-18 boys show character and lose to Finland in a fierce battle

The Latvian boys coached by Oleg Sorokin had to start the World U18 Championship in the Finnish city of Espoo with a loss, losing 1:3 to the Finnish hosts. Bruno Osmanis scored the only goal for Latvia less than two minutes before the end of the game.

Until the middle of the first period, the score remained at for zeros. The two-minute violation earned by Oliveras Mūrnieks for delaying the playing time cost the Latvian national team dearly. The Finnish hockey players did not delay in using the numerical advantage, very quickly after winning the throw, they delivered the puck to Emil Hemming, who sliced ​​the puck past Nilas Mauriņi.

Towards the end of the second period, Bruno Petrović was unable to stop a diagonal pass across the area, thus allowing Finnish forward Heiki Ruhonen to send the puck into the empty corner of the goal. After two periods, the team coached by Oleg Sorokin was trailing 0-2.

In the last part of the game, the Latvian team was gifted with a numerical violation error committed by the Finns, which gave the Latvians two minutes with a one-man advantage. The majority remained without success, but the Finnish boys also found a third goal. Tomas Sūniemi sent the puck past Mauriņas, the guard of the Latvian fortress.

60 minutes empty The Latvian team did not stay. Less than two minutes before the end of the game, when the goalkeeper was replaced by the sixth player, Bruno Osmanis scored a goal, allowing Latvia to become the first team in the tournament, which, despite the loss, was able to send the puck into the opponent’s fortress. Repeated replacement of goalkeeper Mauriņš with the sixth field player did not change the result anymore, as the Latvians conceded 1:3.

The Latvian national team will play its next game tomorrow, competing against Slovakia in two days. Opponents who lost to the USA in the early game will have had four extra hours to recover from their game.

Latvia – Finland 1:3 (0:1, 0:1, 1:1)
Goals: 11:18 Hemming (Kiviharju, Helenius more) 0:1, 36:06 Rūhonen (Niminen, Sūniemi) 0:2, 52:11 Sūniemi 0:3, 58:31 Osmanis (Serkin, Mūrnieks) 1:3.

Shots: 15 – 34

Penalty minutes: 10 – 31

Goalkeepers: Nils Mauriņš – Peteri Rimpinen