Latvian and Finnish U18 hockey players Photo: IIHF
Tonight, the Latvian U18 hockey team lost to the hosts Finland in the first game of the World U18 Championship in Espoo with the result 1:3 (0:1, 0:1, 1:1). Bruno Osmanis scored the goal for the Latvian national team. The safety of the goal in this match was entrusted to Nilas Mauriņi, who saved 31 shots.
The Finnish hockey players took the lead in the 12th minute, when Emils Hemmings made a shot without stopping the puck after three seconds played. The hosts of the championship doubled their advantage just four minutes before the end of the second period, when Heiki Ruohonen sent the puck into the net after a pass towards the goal.
Less than eight minutes before the end of regular time, the Latvians lost the puck in their defensive zone and Tuomas Suoniemi made it 3-0. When there were five and a half minutes left until the end of regular time, Ātos Koivu received a 5+20 minutes rejection, thus the Latvian national team had the opportunity to play in the majority until the end of regular time.
In the penultimate minute, Mauriņš was replaced by the sixth field player and, fighting in the sixth with four, Osmanis executed a lightning program from the right throw circle – 1:3. In the continuation, at the first opportunity, Mauriņš was once again replaced by an additional field player, but the Latvians did not play even more.
If in the first third the ratio of shots was similar (5:6), then in the next two the Latvians had significantly fewer shots on goal (4:18 and 6:10).
In the first game of this group, the USA defeated Slovakia 9-0 (3-0, 3-0, 3-0) with three goals from Cole Aizerman. In the second group, the Czech Republic also had a “dry” victory – 3:0 (1:0, 0:0, 2:0) over Switzerland. At the end of the first day, teams of subgroup B Sweden and Canada meet each other.
In addition to Latvia and Finland, the USA, Slovakia and Norway will play in subgroup A, while Sweden, the Czech Republic, Canada, Kazakhstan and Switzerland will compete in the second subgroup. In the continuation of the tournament, Latvia will meet Slovakia on Friday, on April 28 they will play against the USA, and on April 29 they will play against Norway.
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.
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.
The composition of the Latvian U18 hockey team:
goalkeepers – Mikus Vecvanags (HS “Riga”), Nils Roberts Mauriņš (Sodertalje, Sweden), Dilans Birkāns (Odense, Denmark);
defenders – 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);
forwards – 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, Maksims Kharitontsevs (both – “Mora”), Karlis Flugins (“Oskarshamn, Sweden), Daniels Serkin (Thurgau, Switzerland), Martins Klaucans (New Jersey “Rockets”, USA).