Group B: Canada dominates, Latvia secures second place

Group B opened the group stage of the IIHF eWorld Championship 2022 on Saturday. While the two favourites prevailed – nevertheless some surprises resulted.

Co-favourites Canada got off to a perfect start against Slovakia: Sayed Safir 'SafirSnipezGOLD' Sodouri beat Anton 'PowerBeton' Mesko 4-0.

Justin 'Regs84' Reguly also secured three points against Ondrej 'Aigeu' Jurasi, but the 1-0 win on Xbox was much closer.

Latvia took the first major step in its road to the quarter-finals against Great Britain: Kristers 'chibra' Bauers defeated Jake 'Notzpanthers' Leversuch 2-0, Juris 'snipencelly8' Lopatko celebrated a 5-1 victory against Sean 'Sean' McIntosh.

Great Britain beats Slovakia twice

'SafirSnipezGOLD' and 'Regs84' continued Canada’s dominance. Two wins against Latvia (4-1 and 4-0) brought Team Canada close to the quarter-finals. Great Britain stayed in the race for second place, a 6-5 overtime win and a 3-1 victory against Slovakia gave them five points.

While Latvia had two wins against Slovakia (2-0 and 3-0) in the third round, the players under the Union Jack had to accept two defeats. 'Notzpanthers' lost to 'SafirSnipezGOLD' with 0-5.

Most surprising was the performance of 'Sean' against Canada’s 'Regs84': The Briton forced the finalist of the NHL Gaming World Championship into overtime. There, however, Reguly had the happier end for himself with a 4-3 success.

Canada loses only one point

It was the only loss of points for the Canadians, who enter the quarter-finals as the group leader. Latvia finished group B in second place and also moves into the knockout phase.

Great Britain put up a brave fight, but six points were not enough to advance. The Slovaks, on the other hand, finish bottom of the group with just one point.