The Latvian national ice hockey team is halfway through its preparatory games ahead of the World Championship in Switzerland — out of eight games, four have been played, in which our team achieved three victories. Two of those victories came in Lahti, where the Latvian team became the tournament winner, defeating opponents from Finland (2:1 in overtime) and Denmark (2:1 in a shootout). After the game against the Danes, one of the team coaches Lauris Darzins and defender Bogdans Khodas shared their thoughts on this tournament.
According to Lauris Darzins, the coaching staff was pleased with what they saw, as the players met all the requirements of the coaching staff: “It is always nice to see on the scoreboard that we scored one more goal than the opponent. We are satisfied — two games in two days, and we are glad that we managed to maintain our functionality, considering that the Danes did not play the day before, while we left a lot of energy against a rather technical Finland.
We maintained the pace, we had a good penalty kill, and in the end, we brought the game to a pleasant result. The players showed character, which is what we want to see from them. It was a productive tournament.”
The team coach believes that from this tournament, they should take away the fighting spirit and attitude for the World Championship: “A good team spirit has developed — there are moments near the goal, and then everyone defends each other. These are the things that will be useful later at the World Championship. We are definitely on the right track, and these games proved it.”
In the match against the Danes, defender Bogdan Khodas was the only player on the Latvian national team who scored a goal in regular time. He was particularly happy about this, as it was his first goal for the national team: “Zabusov in the opponent's zone went up well, and I dropped down under him because there was free space. I didn’t expect him to pass to me, but I took advantage of it and just shot at the goal.”
The defender acknowledged that the tactics in both games were different: “Speaking about both games, they were two hard-fought victories. We showed good character, and it’s great that we won both. That’s the most important thing, and we are returning home with good emotions.
It was a different game than against the Finns, who played more with the puck, but the Danes played just like us. Today, tactically we were much better, but there is always room to work on the details to be perfect for the World Championship.”
The team, led by head coach Harijs Vitolins, will now play away against the Slovak national team in Bratislava on May 2 and 3. This preparatory stage will conclude with games on May 6 and 7 against the Norwegian national team in front of their fans. The World Ice Hockey Championship will take place in Zurich and Fribourg from May 15 to 31.
