RG GDT 1/4 • Latvia 7, Kazakhstan 1

2009 WJC RELEGATION GAME
JANUARY 4, 2009 - 6:30 PM ET
http://www.eliteprospects.com/layout/logos/latvia.gif vs. http://www.eliteprospects.com/layout/logos/kazak.gif
Civic Centre, Ottawa, ON

Live Box Score (http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/172/live/2298.html)

Latvia (http://www.eliteprospects.com/team.php?team=1645&metric=no)
25 Lauris Bejaruns - 22 Vitalijs Pavlovs - 13 Gunārs Skvocovs
14 Roberts Jekimovs (A) - 19 Jānis Straupe - 16 Jānis Ozoliņš
11 Roberts Bukarts - 21 Ronalds Cinks - 24 Artjoms Ogorodnikovs
27 Edgars Lipsbergs - 28 Edgars Ulescenko - 15 Koba Jass

26 Kriss Grundmanis - 8 Janis Smits
29 Ralfs Freibergs - 3 Alberts Iļiško
5 Aldis Pizans - 4 Gvido Kauss
6 Martins Gipters - 20 Kristaps Kiplais
10 Edgars Apelis

1 Nauris Enkuzens
30 Raimonds Ermics

Kazakhstan (http://www.eliteprospects.com/team.php?team=1851&metric=no)
18 Eduard Mazula - 26 Konstantin Savenkov - 13 Alexander Kaznacheev
6 Igor Netesov - 3 Igor Denisenko - 10 Nikita Ivanov
9 Alexander Nurek - 17 Vyacheslav Fedosenko - 11 Mikhail Lazorenko
21 Yakov Vorobiev
27 Oleg Onischenko

5 Andrei Korovkin - 14 Evgeni Bolyakin
12 Viktor Ivashin - 7 Nikolai Safonov
22 Leonid Metalnikov - 8 Vitaly Svistunov
4 Dmitri Tikhonov

20 Andrei Yankov
1 Maxim Gryaznov

Officials
http://www.eliteprospects.com/layout/flags/9.gif Sergei Kulakov
http://www.eliteprospects.com/layout/flags/3.gif Richard Ritchie
http://www.eliteprospects.com/layout/flags/21.gif Thomas Gemeinhardt
http://www.eliteprospects.com/layout/flags/9.gif Andrei Mikhel

Scoring
N/A

Players of the Game
http://www.eliteprospects.com/layout/flags/11.gif N/A
http://www.eliteprospects.com/layout/flags/36.gif N/A

Finally a fair game for the Kazakhs.

Go Kazakhstan!

Finally a fair game for the Kazakhs.

Go Kazakhstan!

LOL, yeah, Latvia blew out a team that beat Kazakhstan 9-0, but it's a fair game. Not so much. It will be more of the same for them.

go latvia, hope they stay and their junior program gets better they have great fans

Realistically, Kazakhstan clearly just shouldn't be in this tournament. As boring as another blowout will be, have to root for Latvia.

I think it's the wrong boxscore, it takes me to the Finland Germany game.

Indeed, wrong boxscore. Correct boxscore is here (http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/172/live/2298.html).

Congratuf'nlations Latvia!!! A well deserved blowout win and the 8th place finish to stay in the elite tournament for the first time. If they can keep this up, I can see them hosting the tournament in three/four years time, considering they get 10,500 fans out to Division 1 U18 and U20 tournaments. Malači! Apsveicu!

So Kazakhstan and Germany are relegated....

I was at this game and when Kazakhstan scored, everyone stood up and cheered very loudly. Funny enough, it was the nicest goal of the game. Looked like a goal Datsyuk would score.

I was at the game too and I have to say I was impressed with the Latvia fans. They were out in force tonight cheering on their team, even in a pretty much meaningless game, they still took pride in their team and showed up.

As for Kazakhstan their goaltender, Yankov definantely put on a show again tonight. But they were out of their element, the Kazakhs had lots of shots on net, 30 or 35 shots probably but they just couldn't get puck movement and set up any plays. It was mostly just chipping it in on net from the blueline.

They didn't really belong in this tournament from the get go, but with Denmark and Austria coming up, whos to say those teams will be able to compete either? We shall see next year.

The two top teams out of the 4 that faced relegation definantely were Finland and Latvia and they are rightly staying up in the top division. Congrats to them.

They didn't really belong in this tournament from the get go, but with Denmark and Austria coming up, whos to say those teams will be able to compete either? We shall see next year.


Switzerland and Austria are coming up. Denmark stays where they are thanks to an 8-3 loss to Austria.

...and to answer your question, of course Switzerland will be more competitive than any of the teams relegated this year. The Swiss always send good teams to the tournament with quality prospects, and are only rarely involved in lopsided games.