The host nation is now out, but it went out on a high note. Four different players scored for Latvian team as they beat Norway 4:2 to get a final ranking of 10th place at the 2006 IIHF World Championships, with a record of two wins, three losses, and one tie (versus the Czech Republic in the very first game of the tournament). Latvia's other win was over Slovenia (5:1) in the Preliminary Round.
Just six minutes after the game started, Arvids Rekis scored the first goal in the match on a pass from Martins Cipulis when Latvia got its second power play opportunity.
Less than two minutes later, after an excellent pass from Aleksejs Sirokovs, Viktors Blinovs put the puck behind Norway's goalkeeper Mathias Gundersen, making the score 2:0 for Latvia.
Viktors Blinovs was sent to penalty box for tripping, and Team Norway did not hesitate to capitalize: Per-Age Skroder, assisted by Tore Vikingstad, scored the first goal for Norway ten minutes into the second period.
Six minutes later, Latvia scored another goal, though: Lauris Darzins made the score 3-1 on a pass from Mikelis Redlihs.
The Norwegians carried the play in the third period as the Latvians hung back to protect their lead. Norway had a handful of scoring chances, but Latvian team's captain Aleksandrs Semjonovs put the game out of reach when he scored with 13:16 on the game clock to make it 4:1
But with just 26 seconds to play, Kjell Nygard scored the second goal for Norway. However, the result was 4:2 in Latvia's favor.
Herberts Vasiljevs was named the best player in the Latvian team after this match. But forwards Vasiljevs and Aleksejs Sirokovs, and defenseman Georgijs Pujacs were named best players in the Latvian team during the whole tournament.
