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Team Canada survives scare versus Latvia at World Hockey Championships

Connor McDavid comes through in overtime to avoid upset.
Anthony Beauvillier celebrates a goal for Canada against Latvia at 2018 World Hockey Championships.

Heading into Monday’s match against Latvia, Canada looked vulnerable.

They were coming off a big 5-1 loss Finland, after which a member of their leadership core, Aaron Ekblad, complained to the media about the Finns diving, as if that was the defining difference in a four-goal loss. Neither Canadian goaltender looked particularly good in the game, with both giving up ugly goals against.

Latvia, meanwhile, was on a roll. The demolished Korea, took Team USA to overtime, and comfortably defeated Germany. It was the result against the US that should have been the biggest concern for Canada, as their first loss came to the US in the shootout.

On top of that, Kristers Gudlevskis was slated to start for Latvia, the goaltender that famously made 55 saves on Canada during the Sochi Olympics in 2014, nearly eliminating Canada in the quarterfinals. Canada managed a late power play goal in the third period of that game to win 2-1, but Gudlevskis became a Latvian legend.

It looked like Canada might avoid a similar result when Anthony Beauvillier found a puck sitting between Gudlevskis’s pads and shoved it into the net, opening the scoring just three minutes into the game. That was the only goal Canada could manage in regulation, however, and Latvia responded with a goal of their own in the third period when defenceman Kristians Rubīns beat Darcy Kuemper with a long slapshot.

 

Like they did against the US, Latvia took Canada to overtime, nearly pulling off a stunning upset.

Latvia played a disciplined style of hockey: conservative defensively, with forwards cheating back whenever their opponents might break out, then suddenly attacking with speed and aggression when they got the puck. The discipline extended to penalties, as they managed to stay out of the box for most of the game despite Canada’s constant offensive pressure.

The Latvian team featured a couple Canucks connections in Ronalds Kenins and Rodrigo Abols, with Miks Indrasis also a one-time invitee to a Canucks prospect camp.

Kenins played 38 games over two seasons with the Canucks. He got off to a ludicrously hot start in his career, scoring two goals in his first three games and 10 points in his first 14 games. It looked like he had potential to be a Jannik Hansen type of player, an energy third-liner with occasional offensive upside.

Instead, Kenins seemed to stop playing the gritty, hard-forechecking style that initially endeared him to Canucks fans and found himself flying back to Europe not long after.

Abols was a standout at Canucks camp in 2015, but couldn’t be signed, so the Canucks drafted him in the seventh round of the 2016 draft. That seemed foolish at the time — there was little chance any other team would have drafted Abols, so the Canucks could have signed him as a free agent — and Abols is already out of the Canucks organization.

Kenins and Abols play together on the second line and created a couple of Latvia’s best scoring chances in the first period. Abols set up Kenins for a great chance in front, forcing a good glove save from Darcy Kuemper on a deflection, then Kenins returned the favour, passing to Abols alone in front of the net, but he fanned on the shot.

 

 

Abols is one of Latvia’s leading scorers, with five points, while Kenins has two goals so far in the tournament.

Canada changed up the lines for this game after the loss to Finland. Bo Horvat, who previously played with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, was lined up with Jordan Eberle and Tyson Jost to start the game. That lasted until the second period, when Josh Bailey switched with Jost.

Horvat didn’t record a shot on goal, but created a couple good scoring chances for Canada. He set up Colton Parayko in the high slot for what looked like a sure goal. Parayko was able to load up a slap shot and had room to either side of Gudlevskis, but a Latvian defender managed to get his stick in the lane at the last second and tip the shot wide.

Gudlevskis was stupendous in the Latvian net. While he didn’t face 57 shots like in Sochi, he still had to make several tough saves on the 33 shots he did face. Even on the overtime game winner by Connor McDavid, Gudlevskis made the initial save, throwing his right pad up in the air like a modern-day Dominik Hasek.

 

 

McDavid batted in the puck out of mid-air for the highlight-reel finish, but it says something that Canada needed the best player in the world to score such a highlight-reel goal to beat Latvia.

The World Hockey Championships can be a bizarre tournament. The same Latvian team that took Canada and USA to overtime lost 8-1 to Finland. Finland may have crushed Canada 5-1, but they've lost to both Germany and Denmark 3-2. Germany, meanwhile, lost to Norway 5-4 in a shootout and, to bring it full circle, Latvia beat Norway 3-2 in overtime.

By the transitive property of hockey, Latvia is better than Norway, who are better than Germany, who are better than Finland, who are better than Canada. Therefore, Latvia is better than Canada.

After six games, Canada now sits third in Group B, behind the US and Finland. With the point, Latvia moves into fifth behind Denmark, who the play on Tuesday. The winner of that game will finish fourth in Group B and move into the quarterfinals.