All's Hell in Love and Latvia

Latvian captain Aleksandrs Semjonovs and Canada's Sidney Crosby

Earlier today at the IIHF World Championships in Riga, Latvia, Canada routed Latvia, 11-0, in a game that had to be stopped twice when angry Latvian fans threw coins, shoes, and debris on the ice.

IIHF web site -- Canada thrashes Latvia 11-0, nine PP goals
Reuters -- Canada pounds Latvia as unruly crowd disrupts play

Canada scored a staggering nine power-play goals en route to an 11-0 win at Riga Arena Thursday night in one of the most extraordinary games in international hockey history. The game, refereed by American Rick Looker (who worked in the DEL this year), was dominated by a total of 23 minor penalties, 16 of which were incurred by the Latvians.

The Canadians had already scored 4 power-play goals by the time Looker called the eight penalty of the game against the Latvians at 18:00 of the first period. Fans renewed their whistling and littered the ice with refuse, the most interesting item being a single shoe. That culprit, no doubt, was easily discovered. More dangerously, the idiot element in the crowd threw coins as well, difficult to spot and dangerous to players. At this point, Looker had no choice but to send the teams to the dressing room early so the ice could be properly cleaned off.

Then, the Canadians scored three times within the first 2:24 of the third period-- first at 4-on-4, then at 5-on-3, and last at 5-on-4, making the score 8-0. After another Latvian penalty, the fans started littering the ice again with hundreds of various objects, and Looker sent the teams to the dressing room for a second time, just 4:50 into the third period.

Latvian forward Janis Sprukts came out onto the ice, went to the penalty box, and took the microphone from the PA announcer. In Latvian, he told the fans that he understood their anger at the referee--the players felt the same--but please, he begged, let the teams finish the game. He skated off the ice, back to the dressing room, and the Zambonis came out to clean the ice.

The teams returned and the scene degenerated further. Kyle Calder scored on the power play while Looker had his hand in the air to send another Latvian to the penalty box. The goal negated that. Seconds later, however, Calder scored again, this time 5-on-5, to make it 10-0. Scott Hartnell scored a ninth extra-man goal at 10:17 to round out the scoring.

Sidney Crosby has scored in all four of Canada's games and leads the World Championships in scoring so far with nine points.


Ukraine's Vitaliy Lytvynenko and Russia's Evgeni Malkin

In other action at the World Championships today, Alexander Ovechkin scored a goal and two assists while linemate Maxim Sushinsky had two goals and one assist, as Russia scored 5 third-period goals and downed Ukraine, 6-0.

("That culprit, no doubt, was easily discovered." Ahh, that cracks me up...)

Update 5/12/06 6:50pm -

European Hockey, of course, also has a story on the Canada - Latvia game ("Latvian fans can no longer be considered best in the world"), and posted these photos:




The top photo shows Janis Sprukts, microphone in hand, trying to settle the crowd down. (Photo credits: Roman Kucera)