First Tournament Surprise as Latvia Beats Czech Republic 4-3 – 02.12.2018

Games between Latvia and the Czech Republic are often tight, but still this result was unexpected. Just like in Zurich in 2012 where the Czech Republic lost against Latvia 4-5. The Latvian defender Morics Krumins scored twice, while on the other side only two players were in charge of all Czech goals – Tom Ondrušek (2+1) and Adam Delong (1+2).

Tom Ondrušek opened the score at 3:38 and it seemed that Czechs have forgotten their unconvincing performance from the opening day. But that wasn’t the case. The Latvians played really well and it was an absolutely balanced match for the first two periods. At the beginning of the second period Latvia turned the score with two Krumins’ goals and went into a 2-1 lead.

In the 32nd minute Bitmanis netted the third Latvian goal and surprised all fans in the O2 Arena. And it was a well-deserved two-goal lead because Latvia had a lot of scoring chances. The Czechs managed to reduce Latvia’s lead with Delong’s goal shortly before second intermission. The pace of the game changed in the last period. The Latvians focused on defense and the Czech team controlled the ball for most of the time. At 42:47 the Czech duo Ondrušek-Delong tied the game at 3-3, Ondrušek scoring his second goal and Delong posting his second assist of the night.

It seems Latvia is Tom Ondrušek’s favorite opponent – at the WFC in Riga two years ago he also recorded three points (2+1) in the 9-3 victory. But this time his effort was not sufficient. Exactly one minute later Atis Stepans scored from a quick counter-attack and the Latvians were up by a goal again. He was assisted by the 35-year-old Latvian legend and all-time scoring leader Atis Blinds. Despite a huge domination in the rest of the match the Czechs were not able to score the much wanted equalizer and lost 3-4.