Silovs and Latvians shock Sweden to advance to semis

Latvia’s dream run continued Thursday at the IIHF World Hockey Championships. And the same goes for Vancouver Canucks goaltending prospect Arturs Silovs.

Both the netminder and his countrymen posted their sixth straight victory at the tournament punching their ticket to Saturday’s semi-final with a surprising 3-1 victory over Sweden. Silovs stopped 40 of 41 Swedish shots including all 15 he faced in a one-sided third period.

In the tournament, the 22-year-old is 6-1 with a 2.00 GAA and a sparkling 92.6% save percentage. However, those numbers take into account the four goals he allowed in relief in Latvia’s 6-0 loss to Canada in their opener.

In seven starts, Silovs has surrendered just 12 goals and has stopped 180 of the 192 shots he’s faced posting a 1.63 GAA and 93.8% save percentage.

It gets better though for Silovs and Latvia. During the six game win streak, the young goalie has allowed just 10 goals on 163 shots which translates to a sensational 1.58 goals against average and a 93.9% save percentage.

Silovs and the Latvians will leave their home base of Riga where they have become national heroes and head for Tampere, Finland where the remainder of the tournament will be staged. They have earned a rematch against Canada in Saturday’s semi-final. Silovs started the tournament opener against Team Canada on the bench but was thrust into the spotlight just five minutes into Game 1 when Latvian starter Ivars Punnenovs allowed two goals on five shots. Silovs entered the game and has played every second of the tournament since.

Canada will surely be favoured to advance to Sunday’s gold medal game. But Arturs Silovs will likely have something to say about that. And by now, the world should have learned not to take this Latvian team lightly.