The U-20 hockey team must learn to hate losing

Photo: IIHF

Gints Narogs, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”

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Fought to the last, but lacked power in attack. Latvian U-20 hockey players lost to Sweden 1:2 (0:1, 1:0, 0:1) in the quarterfinals of the world championship in Edmonton.

The Scandinavians have 23 out of 25 players with NHL draft entries in their biographies, but there were equal opponents on the ice. Latvia got off to a good start, but in the 17th minute, the Swedes took advantage of the numerical majority. In the first ten minutes of the second period, the opponents already had a greater advantage, but the defense and goalkeeper Bruno Brewers were like a rock.

Just 74 seconds before the second break, defender Gustavs Ozoliņš, who resumed training after a serious injury in June, equalized. We had some tough moments in the third period.

The team’s most energetic player, Martins Laviņš, unintentionally hit the Swede in the head while performing a power play, earning a 5+20 rejection. The team withstood the deficit, but three minutes later the opponents got theirs.

In the last third, Latvia had half-moments, as in the statistics, only one shot on the Swedish goal, but in the last seconds, not much was needed to break the tie. It didn’t happen this time, but it’s hard to remember such a good performance of the Latvian U-20 national team.

Most likely, we have not had a team showing such a high-quality performance until now.

The head coach of the team, Artis Ābols, admitted after the match that there is nothing to be ashamed of, but there is a loss. “I want guys to hate losing.

Don’t listen to anyone who tells you what malachians you are, you played so well with the Swedes. Hate this situation,” Ābols emphasizes that even this generation of Latvian hockey players has yet to reach the winning mentality. Because the quality of the game allows it, the rest is hidden in the head. There was a family atmosphere in the national team, which Bruno Brüveris spoke about.

“This is the best team I’ve played for in my life. We were like a family, one for all and all for one. We went to every game as if it were the last, we had nothing to lose,” said the goalkeeper, who was on the field in four out of five games in this tournament, saving 91.55% of shots.

He, like the team captain Ralfs Bergmanis and Raimonds Vītoliņš, were recognized as the best in the Latvian national team in this tournament.

All three are 20 years old and will no longer be able to play in December, when the 2023 World Junior Championships will be held there in Canada. It is already known that Latvia will play in the group in Moncton against peers from USA, Finland, Switzerland and Slovakia.

In this year’s tournament, the Swedes will meet the Finns in the semi-finals, and Canada will meet the Czech Republic, which unexpectedly defeated the Americans 4:2 in the quarter-finals.

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