<p>Cue the drama.</p>



<p>Latvia needed to beat Germany by at least three goals to give them a goal-differential advantage over Germany, and they did so with a 6-2 win in their final game of the preliminary round.</p>



<p>For Latvia to avoid heading to the relegation game against Norway, they’ll need Germany to not grab any points against Canada on Sunday. Then, Latvia and Germany would both have three points after Germany’s upset win over Finland, with Latvia then having the tiebreaker.</p>



<p>No matter what, Germany needs a point tomorrow to knock Latvia out of the quarterfinal. If Germany gets at least an overtime or shootout loss against Canada, they’ll join Finland as the last two teams to qualify in from Group A.</p>



<p>So no pressure. But after Latvia failed to score a single goal in their first three games, all eyes turn to Germany to see what they can do on Sunday to close out the final preliminary round game</p><div class="injected-ad injected-video" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="0" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="160"></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Germany</h2>



<p><strong>#13 Veit Oswald, LW (Undrafted):</strong> Oswald has been one of Germany’s best wingers in this tournament, drawing some potential overage NHL Draft interest. He had a couple of good looks until he finally scored before eventually getting ejected for a dangerous hit. Still, the fact that he’s almost always involved in Germany’s high-quality chances says something.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-latvia">Latvia</h2>



<p><strong>#1 Deivs Rolovs, G (Undrafted):</strong> Rolovs needed to be perfect today, and he saved his best performance for when it mattered most. He made seven stops in the first to keep his team up front and besides the brutal goal allowed in the second, Rolovs was on the top of his game. No matter what happens to Latvia next, they need Rolovs to have the best game of his career.</p>



<p><strong>#9 Eriks Mateiko, RW (2024 NHL Draft): </strong>If anyone was going to score in the first period, it was Mateiko, the forward with NHL potential. The 6-foot-5 winger scored Latvia’s first goal and then screened Philipp Dietl for the 2-0 goal, putting Latvia far ahead. It took a while for Mateiko to find his footing, but he’s a mid-round prospect I know a few teams have quite a bit of interest in.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="1" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="198"></div>



<p><strong>#22 Sandis Vilmanis, RW (Florida Panthers): </strong>The Panthers draft pick had a two-goal game, giving some extra comfort in Latvia’s goal-differential padding. They needed that, and so did Vilmanis, who was as snakebitten as anyone in a tournament where the Latvians were relying on him. They’ll need more of that moving forward. </p>



<p><strong>#16 Peteris Bulans, D (Undrafted):</strong> An injury-shortened 2022-23 season prevented Bulans from getting selected, but I wonder if he gets another look this time around. He played his best game with a goal and an assist today while being difficult to take the puck off of when skating around the ice. He’s a good two-way defenseman with no true standout qualities but doesn’t have any major glaring stylistic weaknesses, either.</p>



<p><strong>#6 Darels Uljanskis, D (2024 NHL Draft): </strong>Uljanskis is another I expect to get drafted this year. He’s a smart offensive defenseman who finally managed to get on the scoresheet with an assist, but his play reads were top-notch. From a two-way perspective, this was Uljanskis’ coming out party at this level.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="2" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="175"></div>



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