The U.S. and Latvia have previously played a half-dozen times in the U18 Championship, with Team USA coming out on top in all six. The two sides met a year ago in the preliminary round of the tournament with the U.S. earning a 7-1 victory, including a three-assist performance from returning defenseman Cole Hutson. The lone game played between the two sides that was not in the preliminary round came in 2022, a 13-3 win for the U.S. in Landshut, Germany.
After shutting out Slovakia on Wednesday, Team USA came back with an 8-2 win over Norway last night, getting two goals from Cole Eiserman and three points from James Hagens. Five other skaters picked up multiple points in the win. In his IIHF debut, netminder Jack Parsons turned aside 16 stops to pick up his first IIHF win in net to help Team USA move atop the Group A standings.
Latvia dropped its tournament opener to host Finland, 3-1, but came back the next day to pick up a 5-3 win over Slovakia and even their record. In that game, five different Latvian skaters scored and Markuss Sieradzkis added two assists on top to give him a team-high three points across the two games. Latvia has split their pair of games in net, with Mikus Vecvanags picking up the win with 31 saves against Slovakia.
