ZURICH, Switzerland – Despite outshooting Latvia, 47-22, the U.S. Men’s National Team dropped a 4-2 decision in front of 9,184 at Swiss Life Arena in its fifth preliminary round tilt of the 2026 IIHF Men’s World Championship here today.
Haralds Egle opened the scoring at 8:47 of the first, corralling a pass from Martins Dzierkals in the slot and rifling a wrist shot past the glove of U.S. netminder Devin Cooley (Los Gatos, Calif./Calgary Flames).
Latvia took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission despite being outshot 18-5 through 20 minutes.
Matthew Tkachuk (St. Louis, Mo./Florida Panthers) knotted the contest on the power play at 14:48 of the middle stanza, deflecting a shot from Oliver Moore (Mounds View, Minn./Chicago Blackhawks) past Kristers Gudlevskis to tally his first goal of the tournament.
Deniss Smirnovs regained the lead for Latvia at 6:06 of the third frame, tapping in a rebound chance to give his team a 2-1 advantage.
Cooley made a timely save against Rudolfs Balcers with 6:42 left in regulation, shutting the door on a breakaway.
Tkachuk nearly added his second of the contest on a rebound chance with 1:48 to play but was unable to jam the puck past a herd of Latvian defenders with Cooley pulled for an extra attacker.
Sandis Vilmanis scored into an empty net to give Latvia a two-goal advantage with 1:02 remaining.
Mathieu Olivier (Columbus, Ohio/Columbus Blue Jackets) trimmed the deficit to one with 50 seconds left in regulation with Cooley pulled, wristing a shot past the glove of Gudlevskis from the slot after a pass from Tkachuk.
Vilmanis added another empty netter nine seconds later to seal the win for Latvia and account for the 4-2 final.
Team USA is back in action Monday (May 25) in its sixth preliminary round game against Hungary. Puck drop is set for 4:20 p.m. (10:20 a.m. ET) and the game will be televised live on NHL Network and will stream live on the NHL YouTube Channel.
NOTES: Matthew Tkachuk was named U.S. Player of the Game … Team USA outshot Latvia, 47-22 … The U.S. was 1-4 on the power play while Latvia went 0-3.
