(Latvia-Sweden 3–1) Sweden’s “Tre kronor” has already been knocked out of the ice hockey World Cup in the quarter-finals after a sensational loss against Latvia in Riga.
The newspaper Expressen calls it a “huge fiasco”.
It is the first time since the 1930s that Sweden has failed to win a medal in four hockey World Cups in a row.
Sweden narrowly made it to the quarter-finals, where they had to travel to Riga to face Latvia – who are set for their first ever World Cup semi-final.
Goalkeeper Arturs Silovs was the big hero for Latvia, where on Thursday night there is a party in the streets of Riga.
Dans Locmelis sent Latvia into the lead in the first period, but in the middle period Timothy Liljegren equalized after assists from Lucas Raymond and Jonathan Pudas.
But just over five minutes into the last period, Latvia was again in the lead 2–1. It was Miks Indrasis who put the puck behind the Swedish goalkeeper.
They increased their lead to 3–1 with just over six minutes remaining. Janis Jaks was the goal scorer.
Latvia showed impressive outnumbered play and did not allow the Swedes to equalize.
Sweden is 11 times world champion in men’s ice hockey. They won gold in both 2017 and 2018. Since then there have been four WCs without a medal.
Earlier on Thursday, the USA won 3-0 over the Czech Republic and Germany 3-1 over Switzerland.
