Lauris Darzins scores three in Latvia’s first win

The Helsinki group is really interesting after Latvia's win over Slovakia. Behind the top trio Russia (9), USA (9) and Finland (8) we have five teams within three points with four of the seven group stage rounds played. Slovakia still holds the fourth quarter final spot but France who beat Russia today also has six points. Germany is placed sixth with four points while Austroa and Latvia have three.

Latvia's Martins Cipulis scored the first goal after only 15 seconds of play. A minute later tomas Zaborsky tied it with his fourth goal of the championship.

Lauris Darzins was the man of the match with three goals. He made it 2-1 on a penalty shot. He also scored the important 4-2 and 5-2 goals.

Semgus Girgensons scored the Latvian 3-1 goal. Tomas Surovy scored two goals for Slovakia - his first of the tournament. At 36:09 2-3 and with 22 seconds to play 3-5.

Kristers Gudlevskis made his first start in the net for Latvia and he made 24 saves. Rastislav Stana in the Slovak net had a hard first period with three allowed goals in seven shot. He was replaced with Jaroslav Janus.

Tweets by @eurohockey