In a tournament that has seen its share of surprises already, Latvia pulled off the biggest shock of the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Men’s World Championship so far, upsetting the USA 5-2 in the quarter-finals. It marks the first time Latvia has ever made it to the semi-finals of the U18 tournament and just the second time since 2001 that the Americans have failed to advance that far.
“I can’t even describe my feelings right now – I’m in shock,” said Ricards Rutkis, who had a goal and an assist for Latvia. “USA’s a really good team and I guess I would say it’s unbelievable.”
The USA outshot Latvia 45-16 in the game, but Patriks Plumins, in the fine tradition of Latvian goaltenders, was fantastic.
“I told the boys after the Norway game that I think this is the year we can make history,” said Plumins. “I think we’ve done pretty well, but this isn’t the end.”
“The Latvians played a great game,” said U.S. coach Nick Fohr. “They got the early lead and they made it hard for us to get to the front of the net. We had some opportunities to score but they defended really, really hard. That’s a style of game that our team has struggled with, but they did what they needed to do.”
Latvia opened the scoring just shy of the first period’s midpoint, following a failed attempt to clear the U.S. zone. Rutkis kept the puck in at the line, cut in toward the net, fought off a check and sent a backhand pass across to Martins Klaucans, whose one-timer from the slot beat Brady Knowling over the shoulder.
The Americans got some chances on a power play late in the opening period – one shot from the left wing grazed the outside of the post, and Carter Mayer’s chance was denied by the blocker of Plumins.
The 2-0 goal came on the power play in the 28th minute. From behind the net, Olivers Murnieks centred out front to Rutkis, who fired it home.
“I was open in front of the net and I got a good pass and I just shot without thinking and it went five-hole,” Rutkis described.
As was the case in the first, the U.S. applied pressure on a power play late in the second period, but were unable to beat Plumins. The Latvian goalie made a skate save, then swallowed the rebound attempt by Dayne Beuker.
As the middle of the third period approached, the Americans started pressuring furiously and they finally broke through. Plumins made great saves off of Sammy Nelson and Lukas Zajic but he couldn’t hold them off forever. With bodies all around the net, Zajic picked up the puck in back of the goal and wrapped it around on his backhand with 11:21 to go.
“At the start of the shift, I got a great pass from Wyatt (Cullen) and I had a great opportunity there,” Zajic described. “Then there was a little scrum there and the goalie wasn’t on my side of the net, so I found a way to get it in the back of the net.”
At that point, the feeling inside Vladimir Dzurilla Ice Arena was that the Americans were on their way back. But that feeling was suddenly halted less than two minutes later. Plumins made another great save, going post-to-post to deny Logan Stuart, and then the Latvians iced the puck.
Off the ensuing faceoff in the Latvian zone, Magnuss Avotins received a breakout pass, carried it into the U.S. zone and ripped a shot over the glove of Knowling to restore his team’s two-goal lead.
The Americans went back to the attack, but by now, the Latvians and their fans could smell it. With just under five minutes to play, Knowlings was pulled for an extra attacker, but Klaucins scored his second of the game, shooting at the empty net from his own zone with 4:15 remaining.
“I think the whole game, even in the third period when we were down three, I think we kept fighting,” said Zajic. “The energy on the bench, we all still wanted it and never fell down.”
The Latvians were never able to get too comfortable, as Victor Plante replied for the USA 49 seconds later, taking a pass from Wyatt Cullen and picking the top corner, to make it a two-goal game again.
The second empty-netter with 49 seconds remaining courtesy Daniels Reidzans is when they were finally able to breathe easy.
“Looking up and seeing our parents and supporters is amazing,” said Rutkis. “We made history today, and to have everybody’s parents supporting us is a big deal.”