Latvia wins first medal, Canada gets 28th gold
Latvia won its first ever World Championship medal after edging past team USA in overtime to secure bronze in Tampere.
Defenseman Kristians Rubins, who joined the team partway through the tournament, was the hero. He tied the game at 3-3 in the 55th minute, then potted the overtime winner on a rebound from a Kaspars Daugavins shot.
Earlier in the game, Latvia led twice on goals from Roberts Bukarts and Janis Jaks. However, the Americans responded both times and went in front when Matt Coronato struck in the 47th minute. But, backed by a big crowd of Latvian fans that included the country’s president, Egils Levits, the outsider stayed calm and played its way to a historic triumph.
Head coach Harijs Vitolins, who won World Championship and Olympic gold as assistant to Oleg Znarok with Team Russia, said: “It’s a dream come true. There was never any need to motivate this team. From the first minute, our guys did fantastic work. We almost had to hold them down on the bench to stop them jumping on the ice!”
However, amid the euphoria, Vitolins sounded a note of caution. “We’ve set a high bar, but the next game starts from 0-0. We can’t start believing that we’re going to win every game by five or six goals. They will be one-goal games, we’ll lose some, there will even be some painful losses.
“But today we showed character. We proved that we can fight. In a short tournament, personalities mean a lot. In my time, it felt like our work was done if we reached a quarterfinal. This time, I felt it was different.”
Latvia’s goalie, Arturs Silovs, had a sweep of individual awards. He was named tournament MVP, and was also got the directorate award for best goalie and made the media All-Star team.
Canada wraps up another gold
In the gold-medal game, Canada twice trailed Germany but recovered to win 5-2. That’s the 28th World Championship triumph for the Canadians – their fourth in the past eight tournaments – and overtakes the 27 titles claimed by Russia / USSR.
Third-period goals from Sam Blais, Tyler Toffoli and an empty-netter from Scott Laughton secured the win for Canada.
Germany, despite tonight’s loss, collected its first World Championship medal since 1953 when it came second out of four teams in a curtailed tournament. The Germans are also on a run of good results, reaching the quarter-finals or better in six of the last seven Worlds, as well as winning Olympic silver in PyeongChang in 2018.
Canada’s Milan Lucic, one of the most experienced teams on the roster, paid tribute to the opposition throughout the competition.
“You know [Germany and Latvia] were going to bring their best because they were chasing history,” Lucic said. “I think that was good for us because it challenged us at times, especially when we were down 1-2 in both games.
“You gotta give Germany and Latvia credit for what they did in this tournament, but anytime Canada is in a tournament we expect gold. Canadians expect us to win gold so it’s nice to bring another championship home.”
