In the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, Latvia won two games and tied another. Harijs Vitolins, the current coach, was captain of that team.
In 2014, the Latvians reached the quarterfinal of the tournament in Sochi, Russia, putting a scare into Team Canada before losing 2-1, scoring one of the three goals the eventual gold medalists allowed in the tournament. Daugavins was a member of that team.
He was then captain in 2023 when Latvia, playing at home, finished third at the 2023 IIHF World Championship. Vitolins was the coach. Sweden — yes, Sweden — was the victim in the quarterfinals, a 3-1 victory. In the bronze medal game, Latvia defeated Team USA 4-3 in overtime.
Daugavins knows the Latvian win against Sweden three years ago will be held up as the example that anything can happen Tuesday. He’ll tell you that you can’t compare tournaments. Rosters are different, players are better.
That said, he won’t be upset if that loss lives rent-free in the heads of the Swedes.
“For them, they’ll remember, always when you have a game like that,” Daugavins said. “For us, it means we can do it again. It gives us belief we did it before. We will go out there and give them a hard game.”
Sam Hallam is Sweden coach here. He was also coach on that fateful night three years ago, one that ended in tears for the Swedes while the Latvians celebrated ferociously. Forward Lucas Raymond is the only player who will be on the ice Tuesday who was there that night.
“That was one game from a long time ago,” Hallam said after practice Monday. “That was a completely different group. If you look at the last two Worlds, we had many of these players play against Latvia and we have done pretty good.”
Yes, the Swedes have won against Latvia in each of the past two World Championships. But they still know how dangerous their opponent is.