Latvia to play for 5th place after beating Poland – 08.12.2017

The battles to play for the 5th place took place today before the semis. First ones to play were Poland against Latvia.

The match got quite a slow start and the pace stayed rather for the rest of the first period as well. Neither of the teams managed to put their opponent under pressure and we did not get to see many shots on goal in the first period.

Even in the second period, the game stayed very balanced with no clear chances on any side. However, Poland got a bit more shots than Latvia. Still, it was hard for them to score as Latvia was playing good in their defense and did not allow Poland’s forwards to got close to their net.

Latvia got lucky when Evelina Garbare scored today’s first goal, putting Latvia in lead. This motivated Latvia to open their game performance a bit more and stop playing so defensive. This lead to another goal, scored by Garbare again. These two quickly scored goals distracted Poland a bit and made Latvia more dominant until the rest of the match.

In the third period, Latvia increased their lead to 3-0 with a goal by Laura Gaugere. Just a few seconds after that, Weronika Noga scored to cut down the score and made it 3-1, bringing Poland at least a bit closer. Eleven minutes to the end of the match, Liga Garklava scored a powerplay goal, making it 4-1. At this moment, Poland was out of the match, unable to fully focus on the match again. That resulted in another goal, scored by Evelina Garbare who completed her hattrick in this match.

Best players:
Poland: #44 Weronika Noga
Latvia: #99 Lauma Visnevska