World Juniors | Latvia surprises Canada

World Juniors | Latvia surprises Canada
World Juniors | Latvia surprises Canada

On the second day of competition, Canada continued its preliminary round with a seemingly much easier matchup than the day before as Dave Cameron’s team faced Latvia.

However, Latvia surprised Canada 3-2 as Eriks Mateiko scored the winning goal in a shootout. After a rather messy start to the match for Canada, Jett Luchanko finally opened the scoring shorthanded during the second period before seeing Latvia create the tie in the third period through Mateiko. The two teams exchanged goals at the end of the third period and it was ultimately Mateiko, again, who settled the debate in a shootout.

The lack of cohesion of the Canadian team was obvious at the start of the match and the indiscipline certainly did not help at the end of the match. Note that Canada lost the services of young defender Matthew Schaefer after a fall against the net. Canada will try to bounce back against Germany next Sunday.

Slovakia 2 – Switzerland 1

In a tight and relatively defensive match, Jan Chovan broke the tie late in the third period to help Slovakia win 2-1 against Switzerland. Striker Daniel Jencko first opened the scoring for the Slovaks at the end of the first period before seeing Eric Schneller respond for the Swiss at the end of the second period. Goaltender Samuel Urban blocked 28 of 29 shots faced in the victory. Slovakia therefore won its first match in this tournament while, for its part, Switzerland lost for the second time in as many days.

Germany 1 – Finland 3

After a defeat against Canada, Finland scored a first 3-1 victory against Germany in a match that was much closer than expected. Emil Pieniniemi, Arttu Alasiurua and Jesse Kiiskinen hit the target for the Finnish side while Clemens Sager was the only German scorer. Despite the victory, Finland had a lot of difficulty outrunning Germany and will certainly have to adjust if the team wants to make good progress in the tournament.

Sweden 8 – Kazakhstan 1

Not surprisingly, Sweden completely dominated Kazakhstan in an 8-1 victory. The Kazakhs, who were just entering the scene, were never really in the game. In the Swedish domination, Buffalo Sabers prospect Anton Wahlberg led the charge with a 4-point performance including 2 goals. David Edstrom, Félix Nilsson, Victor Eklund, Linus Eriksson, David Granberg and Oskar Vuollet also scored in the match.

Group A

TEAM V VP D DP POINTS
1 Canada 1 0 0 1 4
2 UNITED STATES 1 0 0 0 3
3 Finland 1 0 1 0 3
4 Latvia 0 1 0 0 2
5 Germany 0 0 2 0 0

Group B

TEAM V VP D VP POINTS
1 Suede 2 0 0 0 6
2 Czechia 1 0 0 0 3
3 Slovakia 1 0 1 0 3
4 Kazakhstan 0 0 1 0 0
5 Suisse 0 0 2 0 0
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