It was two teams looking to rebound after losses facing off at the Riga Arena Saturday [May 13] night, and it showed in a tight hard-fought game that the USA won 4-2 over Latvia in a Group E qualification round game. Latvia had evened the score in the first minute of the third period on a power-play strike by Aleksandrs Semjonovs, but the U.S.'s Patrick O' Sullivan struck back just one minute later to take the lead.
On a power play, Ryan Suter found the mark at 9:50 in the period on a power play, making it 4:2 for the U.S.
Ryan Malone put the Americans on the scoreboard first just seconds into the second period. Lauris Darzins retaliated soon after on a nifty defensive move to even the score for Latvia.
Dustin Brown scored the second goal for the Americans with 14:39 gone. Goaltender for Latvia - Sergejs Naumovs, for the U.S. - Craig Anderson. Shots on goal were about even for both teams in the hard-fought game. Latvia's final game in Group E will be Tuesday against Norway.
However, the result with US team means that the Latvians are now out of quarterfinals contention, with one point after four games played. The pointless Norwegians are also out, since even if they won their last two games, they could do no better than tie teams that have already beaten them (the Czechs or Americans). Meanwhile the USA solidified its fourth-place standing in Group E with the win, only trailing the Czech Republic on goal differential.
