Latvia is headed home and Norway is headed to the quarter-finals at the world hockey championship.
Latvia only needed a point out of yesterday’s final qualification-round game against Germany to edge out Norway for the final playoff spot, but blew a 3-2 third-period lead and lost 5-3 before a crowd of 8,614 at the Metro Centre.
Germany’s Christoph Schubert, Yannic Seidenberg and Christoph Ullmann scored goals in a five-minute span in the third period to end Latvia’s tournament.
Norway almost knocked off Canada last week, and was minutes away from overtime before Rick Nash scored the game-winning goal and lifted Canada to a 2-1 victory.
Earlier yesterday, Norway lost 9-1 to the United States. The U.S. and Finland play tomorrow’s other quarter-final at 8:15 p.m.
At Quebec City, Russia beat Switzerland 5-3 yesterday with two goals from Maxim Sushinsky and a goal and an assist from Alex Ovechkin. The win leaves Russia unbeaten and pits it against fourth-place Switzerland in the quarters.
Second-ranked Czech Republic plays third-ranked Sweden in the other quarter-final in Quebec City.
