Latvia is returning to the under-20 Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships for the first time since 2013, a feat they accomplished by winning the 2016 Division-1 Under-20 Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships. The team features plenty of returning veterans.
While they will not outwardly say it, the goal of Latvia is simple: do not finish last and get regulated again. This means the preliminary round is not as important as the regulation round, where they have to focus on winning enough games to remain in the top division for another year. To do this they will require strong goaltending and will need to be opportunistic, if not consistent, when it comes to goal-scoring.