Goal feast in Ostrava! Latvians beat the Poles in overtime

On the second day of the World Championship, the Ostrava arena watched a very entertaining hockey spectacle. After returning to the elite group of the World Championship after 22 years, Poland challenged the defending bronze medalists from Latvia. The sold-out Ostrava Arena saw the most exciting game of the tournament so far.

If anyone was expecting Latvia to dominate at the start of the match, it certainly wasn’t the case. The Poles entered the match fiercely, presenting themselves with very good movement. Thanks to this, the hockey team won the first power play in Ostrava in the 13th minute.

The Polish national team did not use it yet, but still took the lead a moment later. Michalski put the puck on goal, which after a lucky bounce found its way behind the Latvian goalie Merzlikins – 1:0.

We waited for the next goal until the beginning of the second period. It almost looked like the Latvians were playing a power play. After a long siege of the goal, the puck went to Robert Mamčics, who equalized. Polish goalie Murray didn’t have time to move against his shot – 1:1.

Despite Latvia’s dominance, the opponent took the lead in the 29th minute. Třinec forward Kamil Walega shot the puck from the left side of the net and it went into the Latvian net thanks to another lucky bounce – 2:1.

Crazy third period

The favourite Latvia went into the third period with a loss. But this state of affairs did not last long. In the middle of the 43rd minute, Rodrigo Abols scored with an accurate shot from the slot and it was level. But even this goal did not spur the Latvians to a significantly better performance.

As the 48th minute drew to a close, the Poles regained the lead when Krzysztof Macias scored from a cross. But the fate of the match was still up for grabs.

At 12:25, the Latvians were level, but then the goal was disallowed by the referee due to an illegal goalkeeping. Latvia, however, decided to contest the decision and took the Coach challenge. And they succeeded. The referees pointed to the middle of the rink and it was tied 3:3.

That goal really woke up the Latvians. It wasn’t even two and a half minutes into the game when Rihards Bukarts came through with a beautiful bluff in the crease. The turning point of the game? It wasn’t. The Poles found another answer to this development. At 16:24, Polish captain Krystian Dzubinski scored with a precise shot from the blue line – 4:4. The game went into overtime.

The Poles entered the timeout with the advantage of a power play, which they were unable to take advantage of. And that cost them the win in the end. At 63:29 Kaspars Daugavins got his stick in the perfect shooting position and made the difference. Latvia defeated Poland 5:4 in overtime.

Source: Ice Hockey World Championship 2024