Latvian U18 hockey players will meet Canada in the quarter-finals of the World Cup

Latvian U18 hockey team | Photo: IIHF

The Latvian U18 men’s hockey team will compete with their peers from Canada in the quarter-finals of the World U18 Championship in Vantaa today. The quarter-final match will start at 19.45.

On Thursday, in the first game, the Latvians lost 1:3 to the hosts Finland, then they beat their peers from Slovakia 5:3, in the third match they lost to the Americans 1:7, but in the final subgroup match they lost to Norway 3:5.

Latvian ice hockey players secured a place in the quarterfinals after the Norwegians suffered a 1:11 defeat against the Slovaks, which allowed Latvia to rank fourth in the subgroup. On the other hand, the Canadians defeated Sweden 6-3, beat the Czech Republic 6-0, beat Switzerland 8-1 and defeated Kazakhstan 11-3.

In preparation for the World Championship, the U18 national team played the U20 tournament in Denmark in November, held a camp in Riga in December, and competed in the U18 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 beat the Polish U18 national team 5:1, but on April 11 and 12, they met away from home and failed 1 :2 and won 3:2 in the matches with the Czech U18 national team. In the last test match, the Latvian U18 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.