Hard work gives Norway the win against Latvia

A lot was at stake when Norway played Latvia. The winner would have a great chance of reaching the quarter finals. The game was very intense with a lot of feelings making it one of the most entertaining games played in the Stockholm group so far.

"We knew that it would be tough but we were very well prepared the first period was perhaps our best so far", Norway's coach Roy Johansen said about the game.


The Norwegian fans were happy today.
Photo: Roman Kucera

Norway got the important first goal when Jonas Holøs raced against the Latvian goal, he lost the puck but some how it went it by the skate of Rodrigo Lavins. Bad luck for Latvia who just seconds before the goal had a shot that hit both the bar and the post. On the other hand had Norway been the better team for most of the first period so a 1-0 lead was logical.

In the beginning of the second Latvia's bad luck continued when Georgijs Pujacs had a hard shot that hit the post. And it didn't took long for Norway to instead score a lucky goal when a shot from a bad position hit Andreas Martinsen's skate and bounced into the net for 2-0.

"I won the puck in the corner, I passed the puck and I know he has a good shot so I just tried to go to the net and it found my skate", Martinsen said about his first goal.

"I don't want to say it was luck. I think we're the much better team. We work had and all four lines play well", Norway's forward Mathis Olimb said after the game.

Norway felt like the team with better quality but despite that they didn't create so many scoring opportunities. But Patrick Thoresen did only need one to make it 3-0, when Latvia failed to clear the puck from the slot, Thoresen fired it home for 3-0.

In the beginning of the third period Norway created more chances than earlier, but now it was their time to have some bad luck. Jonas Holøs had a shot that hit both the posts. For the remainder of the game it felt like Norway just stayed in control of the game and holding on to their 3-0 lead.

Latvia's Kaspars Daugavins was disappointed but still stayed in the mixed zone to answer some questions while many of his team mates went straight to the locker room. "A couple of bad bounces put us behind. It was mentally hard being down two goal. They played very well in the their end, it was almost impossible to create anything", he said giving his praise to his opponents.

Latvia's coach Ted Nolan was also impressed by Norway and said "Norway played a heck of a game and we weren't ready for their determination and work ethic, they outworked out us. Losing Bartulis to a suspension hurt us but Norway deserved to win".

When Latvia managed to come up with some chances, Lars Haugen played solid in the Norwegian goal and made 25 shots for the shutout. "I think our goalie played excellent today", Olimb said. Haugen himself was pleased with the team effort and said "I think we did a good game".


Haugen earned a shutout.
Photo: Roman Kucera

Norway now has Germany and Denmark left to play and might need six points to reach the quarter finals. With both Denmark and Germany still in the race there are many possibilities how this will end but Latvia could end up with being forced to beat Sweden to clinch it but if Norway takes six points in their two last games even that won't be enough.

 

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