Latvia’s chances of claiming an ice hockey World Championship quarter-final berth didn’t get any better on Thursday, with the young team suffering a comprehensive 1:7 defeat at the hands of Finland.
Things started well with Latvia taking the lead after just 10 seconds via Rudolfs Balcers. Sadly, that lead did not last long with Hannes Bjorninen levelling the scores after 5 minutes and Henri Jokiharju giving the Finns the lead after 10 minutes.
More pain was to follow with Saku Maenalanen adding a third in the first period and then Waltteri Merela putting the Finns out of reach with a fourth goal in the second period.
The final period saw Finland dominant and at times looking like they were involved in a training match. Three more goals followed as the Latvian players were unable to retain enough possession to mount much of an assault on the Finnish goal, even when they had a numerical advantage.
At least Latvia can take some solace in the fact that the Finns have already performed similar demolition jobs on their other opponents in the tournament and look like strong contenders for the title.
Now Latvia must aim for wins all the way in their remaining group phase games against the USA on Saturday, Great Britain on Sunday and Hungary on May 26. The four strongest teams in the group will advance to the quarterfinals.
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