Canada Survives Scare From Latvia But Lose Tavares
Weber lifts Canada over Latvia (getty)
Latvia forgot that they are the 11th seed and should be annihilated by Canada’s start studded roster. Canada threw an onslaught of shots at 21 year old Tampa Bay Lightning 5th round pick, Kristers Gudlevskis. He dealt with a lot of traffic in front of the crease and multiple breakaways and stood tall. Gudlevskis had little offense and Latvia stood in their defensive zone for the vast majority of the game.
DEFYING THE ODDS
Latvia and Canada started the game off with a goal apiece with Rick Nash finding Patrick Sharp for the one timer. It looked as if Canada would run away with this game early, but Lativa counterattacked two minutes later when Laurius Darzins beat Carey Price top shelf to even it out.
Latvia hung around the entire game and gave Canada all they could handle. It seemed that if Latvia could hang around just long enough they could do the unthinkable and unseat the defending champions. Thus taking the hockey world and turning it upside down.
Latvia dodged tons of bullets in the game. In ones sequence, Canada stormed the net and Krstaps Sotnieks a defender makes a gutsy albeit technically illegal play by placing his hand on the puck before it crossed the goal line, a scene reminiscent to the Winter Classic between the Rangers and the Flyers. The referee didn’t see what would have been a potential penalty shot.
Latvia took terrible penalties at the worst time and finally got burned when Shea Weber scored on the power play. Canada survives the scare and advances to play the red-hot Americans on Friday at 12PM EST.
CANADIAN CONCERNS
Carey Price was fairly shaky despite only facing 15 shots the entire game. Canada assaulted Gudlevskis with 55 shots the entire game but they desperately needs to find the back of the net against the United States, who looked great against the Czechs.
BIG LOSS: John Tavares went down in a heap of pain and will miss the remainder of the Olympics. More news to follow.
Written by: David Cook
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