RIGA - The horns were tooting well into the freezing night as legions of devoted Latvian ice hockey fans finally had something to celebrate. In one of Latvia's most memorable performances in recent years, it beat Belarus 5-4 in a dramatic final flurry on Feb. 13 to top group B and secure qualification for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin.
Latvia won its previous two group matches but still needed to beat the formidable Belarus side to qualify.
Its first game in the four-team group was against Slovenia on Feb. 10, which it won 2-1 in a hard-fought contest at the Riga Sports Palace, where all the group games were played.
Slovenia took the lead in the 15th minute of the first period when Jurij Golicic squeezed his shot past the Latvian goalkeeper Sergejs Naumovs. Latvia then equalized 14 seconds after the first intermission when NHL player Karlis Skrastins scored from a power play, assisted by Leonids Tambijevs. The winning goal game came just six minutes into the second period, when Janis Sprukts scored, assisted by Normunds Sejejs. In the corresponding fixture, Belarus beat Poland 3-2.
Latvia then set up the all-important group decider after beating a resilient Polish team 3-1 on Feb. 11.
Mariusz Czerkawski gave the underdogs a surprise 1-0 lead in the eighth minute of the second period, but Latvia had a little luck on its side and equalized just 16 seconds later when veteran player Grigorijs Pantelejevs muddled the puck past Polish keeper Tomasz Jaworski.
The game could have gone either way at that point but Aleksanders Semjonovs' goal in the 11th minute of the last period proved to be the difference as the arena erupted in jubilation. Martins Cipulins secured the game at 3-1 with a little over a minute left to play.
But with Belarus having annihilated Slovenia 7-2, Latvia had to win its final group game due to its inferior goal difference.
The dramatic showdown was played out in front of a capacity 3,500-crowd at the Riga Sports Palace on the afternoon of Feb. 13.
Latvia got off to a bad start and seemed virtually out of the game when Konstantin Koltsov scored with just 11 minutes left to put Belarus 4-2 ahead. But Latvian coach Leonids Beresnevs made a shrewd tactical move when Belarus' Oleg Khmyl was penalized in the 13th minute. Beresnevs pulled goalie Edgars Masalskis in the 14th minute and with two more players on the ice, Latvia pulled one back through Armands Berzins to make it 4-3.
But when Janis Sprukts made it even at 4-4 in the 16th minute, the crowd erupted into sheer pandemonium. However, Latvia still needed the victory to qualify due to Belarus' better goal difference and the Latvians produced a stunning final performance to grab the winner just 87 seconds later.
Following another frantic attack, in which five Latvian players all tried to score, Aleksandrs Semjonovs finally managed to shovel the puck past goalie Sergei Shabanov.
Many fans could be seen crying in the stands in the extraordinary scenes of jubilation that followed the end of the game. Whatever happens in Turin in 2006, this is one game that will go down in history as one of Latvia's finest hours.
