Latvian U18 hockey team | Photo: IIHF
The Latvian U18 men’s hockey team will meet their peers from the USA today in the third match of the World U18 Championship in Espoo. The match of subgroup A will start at 6 p.m.
In the first game on Thursday, the Latvians lost 1:3 to the home team Finland, but on Friday they beat their peers from Slovakia 5:3. The Americans defeated the Slovaks 9-0 and defeated the Norwegians 8-2.
In subgroup A, after two games, the USA and Finland have six points each, Latvia has scored three points, and Slovakia and Norway have no points. In Group B, Canada has six points, Sweden, Switzerland and the Czech Republic have three points each, while Kazakhstan has no points. In the continuation of the tournament, Latvia will play against Norway on Monday.
In preparation for the World Championship, the U18 national team played the U-20 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.
Herbert Vasiļjevs, Maksims Širokovs and goalkeeping coach Reinis Repšs will assist Sorokin in his work with the Latvian U18 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 U18 hockey team players:
goalkeepers – Mikus Vecvanags (HS “Riga”), Nils Roberts Mauriņš (Sodertalje, Sweden), Dilans Birkāns (Odense, Denmark);
protectors – Krists Retenais, Oskar Nils Briedis, Krišjānis Sārts (all – HS “Rīga”), Harijs Cjunskis (Lugano, Switzerland), Rolands Naglis (Bern, Switzerland), Darel Uljanskis (AIK, Sweden), Bruno Petrovič ( Alberta Academy, Canada);
attackers – 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 Kristians Sieradzkis, Maxims Kharitontsevs (both from “Mora”), Karlis Flugins (“Oskarshamn, Sweden”), Daniel Serkin (“Thurgau”, Switzerland), Martins Klaucans (New Jersey “Rockets”, USA).
