'Still in shock': Latvia stuns Canada in shootout at world juniors

Latvia shocked Canada on Friday in what will likely be the biggest upset of the 2025 world juniors, defeating the host 3-2 in a shootout after erasing two deficits in the third period.

Eriks Mateiko sealed the victory for Latvia in the eighth round of the shootout, the only goal in 16 attempts between the teams.

Latvia had never beaten Canada at the tournament. Canada outscored Latvia 41-4 in the four previous meetings, including a 10-0 victory last year.

The landmark win is only Latvia's third preliminary-round victory in seven trips to the tourney.

"Full marks to Latvia," Canada head coach Dave Cameron told TSN postgame. "Each year, this tournament seems to have a Cinderella team and Latvia has played that role before. ... You win that game nine out of 10 times, so we're wounded, but we're not dead."

Goaltender Linards Feldbergs was Latvia's player of the game after a 55-save performance and stonewalling Canada on all eight of its shootout attempts.

"I'm feeling excited about this game," an elated Feldbergs said. "Just crazy. I still can't believe what we did. So yeah, I'm still in shock. I think I need like, one hour to process this, everything that happened on the ice."

He added, "I was just looking at the crowd and at my team, the Canadian fans were just in shock."

Canadian defenseman Tanner Molendyk gave credit to Feldbergs.

"Ran into a hot goalie," he said. "Obviously, we didn't do anything we really wanted to do from the get-go, but props to the goalie. He played unbelievable."

A shorthanded goal by Jett Luchanko gave Canada a 1-0 lead in the second period. Latvia evened the score with six minutes remaining in the third period, but Calum Ritchie quickly restored Canada's advantage less than two minutes later. Peteris Bulans tied it for Latvia with a power-play goal with 2:29 left in regulation.

Canada won its opener over Finland on Thursday and returns to action Sunday against Germany.

"You have to play every team as hard as you can," Molendyk said when asked about what his teammates can learn from Friday's loss. "I mean, there's no off nights or teams you can take off."