Canada simply not good enough in stunning world junior setback vs. Latvia

OTTAWA — Three words that we didn’t expect after the completion of Friday's world junior hockey championship nightcap: Latvia beats Canada.

A 3-2 shootout defeat demonstrated how close the rest of the hockey world has come to catching up to Canada.

“Unbelievable,” said Latvian coach Artis Abols.

Yet, it happened.

It will go down as one of the biggest upsets in tournament history, but Latvia deserved to win. The Latvians competed, had the skill to contain the Canadians and never lost their optimism despite trailing most of the game.

All that persistence showed. Canada beat Latvia 10-0 at last year’s event and had outscored Latvia 41-4 in their previous four meetings at the event, but the visitors had other ideas this time.

Meanwhile, Canada’s performance was shambolic, with the team unable to create effective pressure.

“But (if) you probably played that game (again), you win it nine out of 10 times,” said Canada coach Dave Cameron. “So, it's not so much about what we didn't do, full marks to Latvia.”

Other Canadian players mentioned how they liked Canada's shot attempts: the Latvian goaltender, Linards Feldbergs of the QMJHL's Sherbrooke Phoenix, made 54 stops.

“Ran into a hot goalie, but yeah, I think some of those chances are going to go in eventually,” said captain Brayden Yager.

Sure, Latvia’s goaltender played well. However, outside of one post hit early in the first period by Berkly Catton, Feldbergs made very few sensational saves.

It was a meltdown, pure and simple.

Canada’s special teams didn’t show up and the team was undisciplined, taking seven penalties, including two in the last few minutes of the third period.

Even if the Canadian players and coaches wouldn’t admit it, despite the shot disparity of 57-27 in favour of the home side, they were held to the outside by a Latvian team that simply wanted it more.

The team with the best power play often wins this tournament. In Canada’s last five gold-medal runs, the team had the best power play in the tournament three times. 

After star defenceman Matthew Schaefer went down with an injury in the first period, the power play was flat, with players being incredibly static at times. On a second-period power play, Canada circled around the Latvian end for two minutes without one shot in tight on Feldbergs.

At five-on-five, Canada dominated possession but was consistently held to the outside. A question heading into the tournament was whether Canada could get enough scoring with some high-quality players left off the roster in Beckett Sennecke, Michael Misa, Zayne Parekh and Carter Yakemchuk. Canada chose fit over skill, and it burned them Friday

Meanwhile, Latvia captain Peteris Bulans and Eriks Mateiko tormented Canada’s penalty kill, scoring two goals to tie the game late in the third. On both occasions, Canada had chances to clear — Cole Beaudoin on the first Latvian goal and then Andrew Gibson on the second. But the Latvians used their skill to pick apart Canada’s defensive structure by passing through the Canadian seams to give themselves Grade A opportunities that Bulans and Mateiko capitalized on late in the third period.

Last year, Canada “ran into a hot goalie” against Czechia when they lost off an Oliver Bonk redirection late in the third period. In that quarterfinal, Czech goaltender Michael Hrabal outdueled Mathis Rousseau but Canada could only muster two goals, exactly like Friday night.

With international hockey talent becoming deeper, more results like this should not be considered shocking. Latvia has multiple players playing in the Canadian Hockey League. Mateiko, who won the game with the lone shootout goal in the eighth round, was selected in the third round, 90^th overall, of the 2024 NHL by the Washington Capitals.

In overtime, Canada had ample opportunities to take advantage of its speed and skill. But star forward Gavin McKenna jumped on the ice before Easton Cowan had come off, leading to a too-many-men penalty, killing Canada’s chance of winning in overtime.

“I don't know. I thought he was off the ice, just a mistake,” McKenna said about the penalty after the game.

“I feel like they might have started to panic a little bit at the end,” said Mateiko.

McKenna, the youngest player on the team, was one of Canada's better players overall. But despite his best efforts with eight shots on goal against Latvia, it wasn't enough. Last time Canada won gold two years ago, McKenna's distant cousin Connor Bedard played hero as a then-17-year-old pushed Canada to beat a Czech team in overtime on home soil in Halifax.

Relying on young star players to bail Canada out won’t work forever, though.

Despite another 17-year-old in Jack Ivankovic stopping seven penalty shots before Mateiko beat him, Canada couldn't win.

“To be honest, I blacked out a little bit,” said Mateiko after clinching the victory.

“If my team, wasn’t real good tonight, I'd be really worried. But it was not. We had enough looks to win that hockey game,” said Cameron.

Cameron could be trying to soften the blow for his teenagers as they try to regroup.

Next up for Canada is Germany on Sunday. Ottawa fans are used to a German maestro: they were wowed by current Senator Tim Stutzle, who won forward of the tournament at the 2021 world juniors in Edmonton and who is now supporting this German team in the capital.

It’s not just youngsters from Ottawa, Markham, Victoriaville and New Westminster that are excellent hockey players, top talent also comes from places like Riga, Latvia and Viersen, Germany. In this tournament, the Germans held their own against the star-studded Americans through the first half of their game before succumbing and then narrowly lost to Finland.

The loss to Latvia displayed how vulnerable Canada is in this tournament — and for years to come.

Injury blow

Schaefer left the game early with an injury in the first period after a hard collision with the Latvian goal post. After the game, Cameron didn’t know the severity of Schaefer’s injury. Schaefer had been Canada’s best defencemen in pre-tournament games and in the opening game of the tournament.

Canada decided not to fill its three open roster spots, even though forward Carson Rehkopf, defenceman Sawyer Mynio and goalie Carson Bjarnason stayed with the team through camp. Canada could put Mynio on their roster, but also could add other offensive defenceman such as Parekh (Saginaw Spirit) and Yakemchuk (Calgary Hitmen) to replace Schaefer’s offensive production.