Both goalkeepers were playing in their third of four games for their respective teams, Jan Bednar had the better GAA than Bruveris – 3.36 to 3.84 – but it was Bruveris who made the difference today. “We believed we could win,” Darels Dukurs said. “We took it one game at a time and gave it our best shot. We played as a team and fought for each other. We stayed focused the whole time.” The Latvians got just the start they needed, jumping out to a 2-0 lead midway through the period. Martins Lavins took the lead after a nice drive from Harris Branch. He drove down the left wing and got the puck in front of Lavins, who quickly redirected the puck between Jan Bednar’s open pads at 4:30. They made it 2-0 at 12:21 off another great pass behind the goal line. This time it was Raimonds Vitolins who fed Rainers Rullers in front. Rollers lifted a high shot over Bednar’s shoulder. Latvia then took two consecutive penalties. PK was perfect in the first and dodged a bullet in the second before finally succumbing. Michal Gut took a backdoor pass that left him with nothing but net to shoot at, but he shot wide and looked skyward for answers that could be more easily found on his film. Moments later, however, he was presented with another chance via a hard pass from captain Jan Mysak, and it was not missed. The Vitolins-Rullers combination had another impressive chance early in the second to make it 3-1, but this time Bednar met and made a great save on Rullers. Latvia had two power plays soon after, but couldn’t capitalize, and it started to look like they had squandered opportunities to take control of the game. Indeed, the Czech Republic tied it at 9:33 on a broken play. Captain Ralfs Bergmanis blocked a shot in front, but it landed with Stanislav Svozil. He moved and covered a backhand over Bruveris, and that sense of missed opportunities comes to the fore. But credit to Latvia and especially to Bergmanis. He put his team ahead at 11:15 after a poor clearance by David Jiricek. Bergmanis’ quick point shot fooled Bednar and gave the underdogs a new lead. Bruveris scored again six minutes later on a similar shot during a power play when his long wrister beat Bednar high. Bednar was replaced by Tomas Suchanek to start the third, but faced just three shots as his teammates threw 17 scoreless Brumanis. The Czech Republic had a golden opportunity to cut into the lead midway through the period when Lavins got his hand on the puck in the crease, resulting in a penalty shot. But Mysak was stoned by Bruveris and held the 4-2 game.
