The goalie behind Latvia’s unexpected run at the World Juniors will be remembered for his saves and his smile.

Eriks Mateiko scored the only goal of the shootout Friday as Latvia stunned an alarmingly uninspired Canada 3-2 in the powerhouse nation's backyard at the world junior hockey championship.

The impossible was made possible, Latvia defeated Canada at the world juniors. The outlook for the rest of the group stage for both Latvia and Canada is now drastically altered going forward.

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Eriks Mateiko scored the lone goal of a shootout in the eighth round to give Latvia a 3-2 victory over Canada on Friday night in the preliminary round of the world junior ...

It’s nice. It doesn’t always happen,” Capitals General Manager Chris Patrick said of the attention on Washington’s prospects.

It was Latvia's third-ever win in the preliminary round at the World Juniors. "It's unreal," Latvia captain Peteris Bulans (2025 draft eligible) said. "Actually, no words to describe it.

Team Latvia’s journey at the 2025 World Junior ... Last week’s upset resurfaced memories of Girgensons’ own World Juniors experience in 2012. He smiled from the Lightning locker room on ...

Great moments are born from great opportunity, and with the chance to pull off perhaps the greatest upset in the history of the world junior hockey championships, Latvia did the unthinkable, besting ...

Those are all good questions, and as I tend to do for almost every World Junior tournament, I had predicted this team would ...

In fact, this was just Latvia’s third-ever win at the World Junior Championships. In their previous matchups with Canada, they’d been outscored 41-4. This was never supposed to be a close game.