All the players of the Latvian men's national team contributed to the victory over Germany through selfless play, said the head coach of the Latvian national team Harijs Vitolins in a conversation with journalists, LETA reports.
It has already been reported that on Saturday, in the second round match of the Olympic hockey tournament in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Latvians defeated Germany 4:3.
“A hard-fought and selfless victory. Everyone who was in shape fought here, and everyone contributed to this victory. It was a good, beautiful team victory. The game was spectacular, fast, with a lot of physical plays and emotions. We probably can't do it any other way — we can only win through struggle,” said Vitolins.
Two of the four goals were scored by the Latvians while on the power play, with Dan Lochmelis scoring twice. “The main thing is to correctly perceive the information given by the coaches. It worked out well,” added the coach.
Vitolins reported that against the line of Germany's team leader Leon Draisaitl, the first priority was to deploy Zemgus Girgensons' line, as well as Teodors Blugers' line. At first, the Latvians managed to contain Draisaitl, but then they had to switch to playing three lines instead of four.
“In the third period, they combined Tim Stutzle with Draisaitl and started playing with three lines, and we also immediately switched to three lines because the guys said they would hold on. Initially, the priority against Draisaitl was Girgensons, second was Blugers, and during the third period, Lochmelis also went against him, but the guys worked very well,” explained the coach.
He noted that every time the team concedes a goal, someone makes a mistake, and during the match, there were several episodes when the Germans created good scoring opportunities.
“Draisaitl went one-on-one with the goalkeeper, attacked from a sharp angle twice. We couldn't establish ourselves in the zone, lost the puck at the blue line, and they quickly organized counterattacks. The same thing that the Americans did to us,” said Vitolins.
“We paid attention to this, and it worked exactly at the moment when [Eduards] Tralmaks scored a goal. We said not to try to make passes through sticks, but to throw the puck along the boards for a run. That's how it happened,” he continued.
On Sunday, in the final match of Group C, the Latvian national team will meet Denmark. Vitolins added that it is still unknown which of the Latvian goalkeepers will take to the ice in the game against the Danes.
The Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo will last until February 22.
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