The Latvian Goaltending Story
How a 2014 Olympic Quarterfinal paints the story of a goalie legacy in Latvia.
I remember in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, hearing about Canada struggling vs Latvia. Latvia?? No offense to Latvia but it was mind-boggling to almost everyone in the hockey world that one of the greatest hockey programs of all time, who won 13 gold medals in their history, was struggling against a country that lacked comparable NHL talent.
So why did Canada only manage to score twice in the 2-1 quarterfinal thriller vs Latvia? One of the main reasons was Latvian goaltender, Kristers Gudļevskis. Canada had an onslaught of chances, tallying 57 shots on goal, of which. Gudļevskis stopped 55! Canada did not score the game-winning goal until 6:54 remaining in the 3rd period, ultimately taking the victory and advancing to the semifinal. Despite the loss, Gudļevskis’s performance had hockey fans stunned, who was this guy. The International Hockey Lineal Championship reports even Carey Price as being impressed in which he referred to it as “one of the best goaltending performances I’ve ever seen in a long time” (para 11).
Gudļevskis was drafted the year prior by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 5th round. He only played 3 games in the NHL and did not have the best numbers in the AHL, where he hung around the .900 save percentage (SV %) range. He now plays in the Slovak league where he has made improvements to his game; improving to a .923 SV % this season in 10 games played, and I truly hope this is the beginning of a comeback to North American hockey for the goalie (who is still only 29!).
Despite Gudļevskis never making it big in the NHL, he will always be imprinted in international hockey history as the man who stood on his head against giants. He also stamped his place as a member of a Latvian goalie lineage that has only improved throughout the past 30 years.
Our story begins with one of the more well-known Latvian goalies, Artūrs Irbe, who played 13 seasons in the NHL from 1991-2004, playing over 500 NHL games. While he may not be remembered as the best goalie of his time, with a .899 SV % during his career, he represents an important milestone as being the first Latvian goalie in the NHL. The Hockey Writers point out that he holds a special place in Canes fan’s hearts as playing a part in their 2002 playoff success where he had a .938 SV % and 1.67 GAA in his 18 games played (para. 8).
During Irbe’s time, Pēteris Skudra became an NHL backup for the Penguins where he impressed in his rookie season with a 1.83 GAA in 17 games, in which he held the future 1998 Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings to 1 goal in a tie game! Although his career was short playing only 5 more seasons after his rookie stint, he does play an important role in this story as contributing his career successes to this lineage.
Moving forward to the present, Elvis Merzļikins is now beginning his third NHL season, and he is showing signs of being one of the better goalies in the NHL, with the potential to get even better. In his rookie season (2019-20), he had a .923 SV % and a 2.35 GAA in the 33 games he played, even performing well in the two playoff games he was put in where he had a .946 SV %. Fast forward to 2021-22, and he is off to a spectacular start with a .939 SV % and a 1.98 GAA in his first 5 starts. Hopefully, he can keep this going and lead his team, who we do not project making the playoffs, to a few extra wins. With this potential and his surface numbers, he looks to be beginning a career that will cement himself as the best Latvian goaltender to ever play, but there is still a long way to go before we make that conclusion.
His former teammate, Matīss Kivlenieks, who tragically passed, during a July 4th celebration in 2021, was poised to be the Blue Jacket’s 3rd string goalie this season. He did not have the best numbers in his short career, but that is an unfair criticism to a goalie who is under 25, and his underlying numbers suggest that he had been steadily improving. For example, he improved his even-strength save percentage from .913 to .923 from 2019-20 to 20-21, and he improved his save percentage in the AHL by almost 38% from his first season in the AHL to his games with the Cleveland Monsters last year. These improvements show that he had the potential to be an effective option for the Blue Jackets this season and gone on from there to become a backup and an eventual starter somewhere in the NHL. He even performed well at the international stage, where he had a strong outing at the 2021 Men’s World Hockey Championship highlighted by his shut-out vs Canada in group play! As Graig Graziosi reports; he protected those around him the day he died by shielding them and “died a hero” based on a witness account by Merzļikins (para 1-2). Rest in peace Matīss Kivlenieks.
Latvia also has up-and-coming talent that deserves a nod. Vancouver prospect, Artūrs Šilovs, drafted in 2019 by the Vancouver Canucks, has very limited AHL experience at only 20 years old, but he is off to a great start this season with 1 shut out in his 3 starts and currently boasts a .929 SV % and a 2.28 GAA. Looking even further down the tunnel, goalie prospect Karlis Mezsargs, who is eligible for the 2022 NHL Draft, currently has a .912 SV % at 17 years old in 17 games with HK Riga in the MHL in Latvia (which is a farm league for the KHL in Russia) and will be a name to watch for in the draft next year.
So what is my point? Well for one, it is not that every goalie who comes out of Latvia is destined to be great, but it seems to be that this country is producing goalie talent at a growing pace that could potentially play in the NHL. There is a long way to go to see what Šilovs can do or even Mezsargs but I think Latvia is a country to keep an eye on in terms of goalie talent and it is always interesting to see smaller countries produce good hockey players.
Mason Havey
(All stats and scores are sourced from hockeydb.com, eliteprospects.com, hockey-reference.com, quanthockey.com, stats.hockeycanada.ca, olympic.ca, statmuse.com and Wikipedia.org)
“Carolina Hurricanes History: Artūrs Irbe Brought Success and Stability.” The Hockey Writers, The Hockey Writers, 13 Aug. 2020, https://thehockeywriters.com/carolina-hurricanes-arturs-irbe/.
Graziosi, Graig. “NHL Goalie Matiss Kivlenieks 'Died a Hero' after Protecting Teammate and His Pregnant Wife from Firework Blast.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 16 July 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/matiss-kivlenieks-nhl-hero-died-b1885662.html.
“IHLC Results – 🇨🇦 Canada 2-1 Latvia 🇱🇻 – 19 Feb 2014.” International Hockey Lineal Championship, 19 Feb. 2014, https://theihlc.com/2014/02/19/ihlc-results-canada-2-1-latvia-feb-19-2014/.