Slovaks Send Latvia to Relegation Round

Slovakia will avoid playing in the relegation round thanks to a 4-2 victory over Latvia on Friday night at the Air Canada Centre.

With a chance to play in the quarter-finals on the line, both teams knew getting on the board early would be very important momentum-wise. As such, both teams scored in the first ten minutes of play. Latvia, however, would be the team that struck first, as Karlis Cukste would beat Adam Huska between the legs to make it 1-0 after just 3:40 of play.

Latvia would record their first lead of the tournament, but it wouldn’t last for long. At 8:13, Tomass Zeile made a terrible giveaway behind the Latvian net to Slovakian attacker Filip Lestan, who fired the puck into a wide-open net after Mareks Mitens was caught making the initial pass to Zeile out of the crease.

The Slovaks were the much stronger team in the contest, at least with the puck, and they would be rewarded with the next lead. With 1:40 left in the second, Marek Sloboda’s wrist shot from the point was stopped by Mitens, with Milos Roman able to pick up the puck in front. He had no issue beating Mitens with the shot, making a quick deke before sliding it past the Latvian netminder for the 2-1 goal before the start of the third period.

The Slovaks would score a pair of goals in the first 5:01 of the third to put the game away. Just 41 seconds in, Andrej Hatala hammered a shot past Mitens to give Slovakia the two-goal lead. Then, a few minutes after that, Marek Sloboda re-directed a shot from Milos Roman in close and it was 4-1.

But Latvia wasn’t done. With 53:29 complete in the game, the Latvians took advantage of the two-man advantage thanks to Filips Buncis grabbing the rebound in front to give Latvia a chance late in the contest.

With the win, Slovakia will clinch a quarter-final spot on Monday with a game against Sweden in Toronto. They will, however, play one more preliminary round game with an 8:00 PM start against the Russians to close out round robin action in Toronto. Latvia, on the other hand, will play in a three-game relegation series against Finland, the most recent World Junior champions.

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Photo from Anders Marshall/EuroHockey.com

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