The Latvian national hockey team in the fourth game of subgroup B of the 2021 World Championship meets with the USA.
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The game between the two teams in “Arena Riga” will start at 16.15. The portal “Delfi” will offer a live broadcast of the text of the game, but at 14:00 in the program “Spried ar Delfi” we will talk about the past Latvian national team games and the upcoming game against the USA.
The Latvian national team started the championship on Friday with a sensational victory over Canada (0: 2), a day later in the “bulls” 2: 3 lost to Kazakhstan, but in the third game 3: 0 won Italy.
Mārtiņš Karsums scored two goals in the game against Italy, but the assistant captain Lauris Dārziņš also has two accurate shots. Both attackers are the best snipers in the Latvian national team so far. Ronalds Ķēniņš and Ralfs Freibergs have scored two assists.
Kivlenieks stood in the first two matches of the Latvian national team, repelling 97.1% of the throws, dealing with 67 out of 69 throws, and still takes the third place among the safest goalkeepers.
Punnenov also stood “dry” in the match against Italy, repelling 12 shots, but the individual goalkeeper statistics only include goalkeepers who have scored in at least two games.
With the efforts of both goalkeepers, Latvia has the best indicator in three games in repulsed throws with 96.34%. The second is the USA with a 96.05% rebound and three goals conceded.
Meanwhile, most Latvia has large reserves to improve performance. Latvian hockey players have scored one goal in nine attempts or have realized an 11.11% chance, taking the penultimate place.
The US national team has scored one point less than Latvia after three games. The tournament started with a 1: 2 loss against Finland, but later two successes were celebrated – 5: 1 against Canada and 3: 0 against Kazakhstan.
Trevor Moore has scored three goals in three games and once scored, but Jason Robertson’s account is 2 + 2.
The US national team goalkeeper Kels Petersen has scored two puck in 47 shots and with 95.74% rebound in the championship takes the fifth place among the puck catchers.
This will be the first game of the day of subgroup B, but later at 20.15 Finland and Italy will meet.
With nine points in four games, the leader of Group B is Germany, seven points are in Latvia, Finland and Kazakhstan, which is the only one to have played four matches, but the US national team has earned six points in three games. Canada and Norway have earned three points in four games, but Italy is the only team that has not yet managed to score points in the championship.
Switzerland and Slovakia will meet in subgroup A at 4.15 pm, but about four hours later the Swedish and Czech teams will also climb on the ice. The first game will be broadcast by the channel “360 TV hockey”, and the second – “360 TV”.
With nine points in four games, the leader is OKR, Slovakia has the same number of points in three games, Switzerland has scored six points, Denmark has five, and Belarus and Great Britain have scored four. Sweden has three points in three games, but the Czech Republic has earned two.
On Friday, the Latvian national team will meet with Norway, on May 30 there will be a fight with Finland, and on June 1 – with Germany.
The Latvian national hockey team is conducting its 24th World Championship in the highest division.
Compared to other years, the Latvian national team had its first free practice training on March 17. At the beginning of April, 37 hockey players had their first official training before the upcoming World Championships, but on April 9 and 14, the candidates convincingly won the Latvian U-18 hockey team 6: 1 and 5: 1, which later went to the USA to play in the elite division. About a week later (April 20 and 21), a team of 26 men played two test matches in Slovakia. In the first of them, Slovakia managed to win the bulls 2: 1, but in the second overtime they lost 0: 1.
In the last test matches last week, Latvia acknowledged the superiority of the Swiss national team with 0: 3 and 1: 2. After the second test match with Switzerland, Bob Hartley named the line-up for the World Cup, which included three goalkeepers, nine defenders and 16 strikers. The 28 hockey players were also entered in the championship on Thursday.
The most experienced in the Latvian national team is Mikēlis Rēdlihs, for whom this is the 13th World Championship in his career. Kristaps Sotnieks has less than one tournament, but for the tenth time Latvia is represented in the elite by Kaspars Daugaviņš, Lauris Dārziņš, Andris Džeriņš and Gints Meija. Daugaviņš, Dārziņš and Rēdlihs were in the 2006 Riga Championship application.
There is only one debutant in the team – 22-year-old striker Renārs Krastenbergs, who proved himself well in the last test match of the national team.
Due to the growth of the family, the goalkeeper Elvis Merzļikins will not help the team, the striker Rūdolfs Balcers is waiting for a new contract, who, like Zemgus Girgensons, who has not played this season, is healing the injury. The Stanley Cup is continued by the striker Teodors Bļugers, who has no place in the Latvian national team application. Gunta Galviņa, the long-time national team defender, will have to do without this championship, while another player of this position, Krišjānis Rēdlihs, has finished his career in the national team.
Both teams have played five mutual games in world championships in the last 12 years. The only 6: 5 victory in this period was won in 2014, when Herbert Vasilyev scored the victory goal about two minutes before the end of the regular time.
In 2018, when the two teams played their last match so far, the US national team won 3: 2 in overtime.
The World Cup usually starts in the first week of May, but this year it has been postponed to the end of the month so as not to overlap with the national championship playoffs and the NHL regular tournament.
The 2021 World Championship in Riga will take place until June 6.
In subgroup B, where Latvia, Canada, Finland, USA, Germany, Norway, Italy and Kazakhstan, matches take place in “Arena Riga”, but in the subgroup A national team of the Russian Olympic Committee (OKR) team, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus and Great Britain spend their duels on the ice rink set up on the football field of the Olympic Sports Center.
In 2022 it is planned to host the tournament for Finland (Helsinki and Tampere), in 2023 – for Russia (St. Petersburg), in 2024 for the Czech Republic (Prague and Ostrava), and in 2025 – for Sweden and Denmark.
The 2021 World Championship in Riga will take place until June 6. Riga has hosted the World Championships for the only time so far in 2006.
