In the World Championship match, the Latvian national team lost to the Finnish team with a score of 1:7.
One good piece of news is Rudolf Balcers' goal at the very beginning of the game. Thus, he already has five goals in this World Championship – the other players of the Latvian national team have managed to score only one goal in total.
The last time a player from Latvia scored the most goals in the World Championship was almost half a century ago – in 1978. That was Helmut Balderis, who scored 9 goals.
Back then, by the way, only 8 teams participated in the tournament. Now there are 16. This means that to match Balderis' achievement, one must score 18 goals. And also win the championship, as the USSR team did, which Helmut Balderis represented.
However, let's get back to our sheep. The Finns easily and effortlessly scored 6 goals against Mareks Mitens, who was in goal. At the beginning of the 3rd period, he was replaced by Gustavs Grigals, who let in another one.
However, not everything is so hopeless. To reach the coveted quarter-finals, three remaining games must be won. And while there should be no problems with Britain and Hungary, the USA will be a tough opponent.
