Team Canada loses to Latvia, needs to wake up if it wants gold medal

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Holy crap!

Maybe it wasn’t as shocking as a 6-3 loss to Kazakhstan in 1998, but Canada’s 3-2 shootout loss to Latvia Friday night at Canadian Tire Centre has to rank up there with the biggest-ever upsets at the world junior hockey championship. 

Two games into the world juniors, a Canadian team that desperately wants to erase memories of the stunning fifth-place flop of a year ago, needs to settle down, find a way to learn from its latest bit of adversity, hit the delete button, then delete from deleted.

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There are questions. And, there need to be answers in the coming days.

Latvia? A team Canada has previously played four times in the world juniors and outscored 41-4? The team Canada put a 10-0 beating on a year ago?

Yep, that team.

So, what happened? Not only was Canada expected to win, it was also expected to fill the net, maybe get into double digits.

Was Canada that bad?

“A big part of our preparation was there are no easy games in this tournament, we know how hard it is,” Canadian coach Dave Cameron said. “We had enough looks to win that hockey game. We didn’t, full marks to Latvia.

“When you’re in this game, there are disappointments, there are big losses. You had better learn how to handle them.”

Canada outshot Latvia 56-26. Goalie Linards Feldbergs was excellent, especially in the shootout when he turned aside all eight (some of them looked very lethargic) Canadian shootout attempts. Eriks Mateiko won the game for Latvia when he put the puck past Canadian goalie Jack Ivankovic, who also was very good.

“It’s obviously not the best feeling, but I know we’re going to bounce back,” said Calum Ritchie, who gave Canada a 2-1 lead with 5:38 left. “It stayed a close game for a long time, we let them hang around. Tonight wasn’t our night. Everyone has to step up, we have to regroup.”

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“It sucks to lose,” said Canadian captain Brayden Yager. “We ran into a hot goalie. If they didn’t block so many, we could have had 90 shots.  Some of those chances are going to go in eventually, we just have to keep pecking away.

“We didn’t lose our belief. Every team is going to run into adversity. The whole part of going to Petawawa for (training) camp was learning about what it takes to be a team. It’s up to us to learn from tonight.”

While the stats show Canada was dominant, it really didn’t seem that way, at least in terms of quality scoring chances. Latvia boxed Canada out of the middle of the ice; many of the shots came from the perimeter. To have a chance to hang in, they knew they needed to slow down the more skillful Canadians. The plan worked.

Over and over during the game, Cameron urged his players to get to the inside. Over and over, they fell back on less-dangerous shots from the outside.

Given just a flicker of a chance to beat Canada, Latvia responded in a big way.

“We started the tournament as a no-name team,” Latvia’s coach Artis Abols said. “Canada is always a favourite in every tournament, especially in this one. After the first period, we started to believe (we could win).”

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It was a feel-good story for Latvia; maybe the country’s hockey fans woke up and partied in the streets.

On this night, in that game, they were the better team – the scoreboard says so.

And, now Canada must find a way to believe it is good enough to win this tournament.

“I didn’t think we played a bad game, some bad bounces and stuff like that,” Ivankovic said. “I don’t think we took them lightly. If we played them again, I think it would be (a different result).”

The Canadian players need to recover fast; after a Dec. 29 game against Germany, they go up against the powerful U.S. team, the defending gold medalist, New Year’s Eve. 

Maybe the setback and the adversity that goes with it can help Canada in a weird sort of way. The fear of losing can be suffocating, but it can also be motivational.

Four minutes into Friday’s game, Canadian defenceman Matthew Schaeffer, possibly the No. 1 selection in next year’s NHL Draft, slammed into the goalpost shoulder first while driving to the net, then slid into the end boards. He didn’t return.

Ouch!

It was announced Saturday, Schaeffer is out for the remainder of the tournament. TSN draft analyst Bob McKenzie said it was a broken collarbone. 

It’s a huge blow, more adversity that adds to the hows and whys and what-ifs.

In a tournament that soon shifts to win or go home, Canada needs to find itself.

And, it needs to find a way. Now.

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