Latvia Latvia is a baltic European country , bordered by Estonia , Lithuania , Belarus and Russia . There are 2 . 3 million people living in Latvia , which capital is Riga . History of hockey in Latvia . If February 15th 1909 is considered by many as the date where the first ever ice hockey game was played in Latvia ( Union vs . Strēlnieka Dārzs ) , hockey as we know it nowadays , then nicknamed " Canadian hockey " , only began in the 1930 ' s . There were no leagues at the time in the country : the teams rather played in short tournaments . With the Latvian Winter Sports Federation beginning to fully support ice hockey in 1930 , the country was admitted within the IIHF ranks in 1931 . They took part in the 1932 European Championship ; the next year , they made it to the 1933 World Championship in Prague . Prior to 1970 , year of the construction of the Rīga Sports Palace , no indoor rink existed in Latvia , meaning that all games were played outside on frozen ponds or on flooded outdoor surfaces , making the game extremely dependent on the temperature . During World War II , hockey in Latvia survived , against all odds . If the Soviets disbanded all of the existing teams to replace them with new ones ( including the Dinamo Riga ) , the older clubs were resurected with the arrival of the Germans in the country . In the late 1940 ' s , the Dinamo joined the Soviet League and did very well , it ' s star pre - war players accomplishing very nice things and kept the team in the top tier for a decade . Harijs Mellups was 1948 ' s best goaltender in the whole Soviet Union ; he made the Soviet National Team that year . Other skilled Latvians of the pre - war era carried on playing in Germany ; Augsburg became famous from 1946 to 1949 for having up to eight Latvians on its roster , earning it the " Letten Mannschaft " nickname . Of the Latvians to play in West Germany , the most notable is Rūdolfs Veide , who had a long and successful career as player and coach there , even played on the West German National Team in 1953 - 54 ; his son Ēriks Veide did the same 20 years later . Latvian hockey however struggled in the 50 ' s and 60 ' s , with the Dynamo stuck in the second tier of the Soviet League . Thankfully , a pair of legends in the making arrived during the late 60 ' s to save the day : they were coach Viktor Tikhonov and forward Helmuts Balderis . Tikhonov ' s discipline and Balderis ' offensive skills helped the Dinamo reach back the top tier for the 1973 - 74 Soviet League season and re - establish itself as a solid Soviet League team until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990 ' s . Both Balderis and Tikhonov transfered to the CSKA Moscow club in 1977 , but the relationship between both was pretty tense , as Balderis often rebelled against Tikhonov ' s very authoritarian and abusive , although revolutionary , methods , a rebellion that costed Helmuts spots on the Soviet National Team at various major occasions , including the 1976 Canada Cup , the 1980 Olympics and five World Championship s . Later , at the age of 37 , Balderis became the first Latvian to be drafted to the National Hockey League and the first Latvia - native to play there , with the Minnesota North Stars , after having spent 3 seasons coaching in Japan . With Belderis on his last miles on the ice , a new Latvian player emerged in the late 1980 ' s : Artūrs Irbe . Promoted to the main Dinamo Riga squad as a promising goaltender , he was silver medalist of the Soviet League with the Dinamo in 1987 - 88 and the next season , he was on the Soviet National Team . Already a hero among his fellows , Irbe gained even more love and respect from his people by manning the barricades in Riga in the winter of 1990 - 91 as , during the USSR ' s fall , Latvia was pushing very hard to gain its independence . That patriotic act had him banned from the Soviet and CIS national teams , but as soon as Latvia ' s independence was acknowledged and that the country formed its national team , Irbe was a key element , having by then established himself as a solid NHL er . Sandis Ozoliņš soon followed him to North America , as well as Sergejs Žoltoks and Grigorijs Panteļejevs . Meanwhile , Latvian hockey had very hard times during the first years of the country ' s independence , as funding vanished and the best players looked for any opportunity to go play abroad . Teams folded and ice rinks closed ; for the most part of the 1990 ' s , the old Riga Sports Palace was the lone arena of the country . The country ' s national team , however , played with all its heart and was very successful , reaching the top tier of the World Championships in 1997 and surprising everyone by finishing seventh . Those successes marked the rebirth of Latvian hockey ; as of 2006 , 15 ice rinks exist in the country and teams like Rīga 2000 and Liepājas Metalurgs turned professional . With the arrival of the Russian Kontinental Hockey League in 2008 , the Latvians were offered a chance to play hockey of a higher caliber . They founded a new team , named Dinamo Riga after the old legendary club , which was allowed in the KHL . The newfound Dinamo began to build a good club made up of some of the best Latvian players , which included former NHL star Sandis Ozoliņš and pretty much looked like the Latvian National Team , except for the presence of some imports such as Marcel Hossa . They finished second of the Kharlamov Division in their inaugural season , but were swept 0 - 3 by Dynamo Moscow in the first round of the playoffs . Meanwhile , the national team kept doing fairly well , continuously finishing around or a bit above tenth , with a respectable seventh place at the 2009 World Championship . They successfully qualified for the 2010 Olympics , where they finished 12th and last . However , the team , despite their final standing , did well , especially since goaltender Edgars Masalskis actually had to face an average of 60 shots each of the four games he played ! But Latvia ' s most impressive feat was a solid comeback against the Czech National Team in the quarterfinals to tie the game 2 - 2 in the third period and force an overtime period to be played . Unfortunately for the Latvian team however , David Krejci beat Masalskis between the legs for the game winning goal that ended Latvia ' s tournament .