Humiliating upset for Team Canada at WJC!

In a stunning turn of events, Team Latvia forced overtime against Team Canada in a preliminary game at the World Junior Championship on Friday night.

Funny enough, the game was a roller-coaster for anyone watching with Canada leading only 1-0 for most of the game, until Latvia tied things up on a power-play, thanks to Eriks Mateiko.

Fans in Ottawa were shocked but eventually got less anxious when Calum Ritchie wired it home on the power-play to give Canada a late 2-1 lead.

But then, Latvia wasn’t done.

With another chance on the man advantage, Latvia did not miss as Peteris Bulans scored the power-play marker to make it 2-2.

Forcing overtime.

Against Canada.

We’re talking about Latvia here, who only has two drafted players on its roster.

During the overtime, with less than a minute to go the frame, Canada was caught with too many on the ice. A too-many-men penalty in 3-on-3 overtime is just flat out embarrassing!

Lucky for Team Canada, there was not enough time for Latvia to score on the power-play and get the win in overtime.

Off to shootouts…

All first 10 players were stopped in the shootout and forced the game in extra rounds.

Finally, in round 8, Eriks Mateiko, who was going up for the fourth time, finally managed to score to get Latvia the win.
Team Latvia has had their share of upset performances and have passionnate fans. Latvia is by far the youngest team in the World Juniors with an average age of 18.04 years. They have four 16-year-olds on the team.

This was a team built with an eye to the future, but SURPRISE on Friday they made it to a shootout against Canada.

And won.

In Canada.

Their goalie Linards Feldbergs, who’s undrafted by the way, made 54 stops in the game and managed to stop all eight shots in the shoutout.

This is Latvia's third ever win in the preliminary rounds at the World Junior Championship. Hate to see Canada lose, but man Latvia is easy to cheer for.