In a tense of 2006 IIHF World Championship Group A preliminary game on May 5 in "Arena Riga", Latvia and the world champion Czech Republic played a 1:1 draw. Latvia jumped to a 1:0 lead in the first period (6:22) as Aleksejs Sirokovs' shot on goal dribbled off Milan Hnilicka's glove into the net.
The Czechs, who had a total 32 shots on goal to just 12 for Latvia, came back to tie the game with 19.32 on the clock, as David Vyborny poked in the puck from close range.
Latvia spent much of the second period playing with a man short, thanks to numerous penalties, but the Czechs failed to capitalize. The third period also featured numerous trips to the penalty box for the Latvians.
Goaltending for Latvia tonight - superbly - was Sergejs Naumovs.
The Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod net minder single-handedly kept his team in the game with several important stops in the first period. In the period, Naumovs made 11 saves and 30 in the game. After twenty minutes the Czechs had outplayed Latvia.
You cannot play an easy game against the Czechs," Naumovs told the International Ice Hockey Federation. "If you make just one wrong move it is tough to get the puck back from such a skilled team. We tried to concentrate from the first second until the very last one," he added.
The Latvian team can take pride in the fact they were in it for the better part of the game and came away with a valuable point. They will take on Finland Sunday, while Slovenia and the Czechs tangle in the afternoon contest.
Overall, three more games were held on May 5. USA played Norway (3:1), Finland scored 5 goals against Slovenia (5:3) and Denmark played against Canada (3:5).
