Latvia has national holiday after its first-ever bronze at men’s World Hockey Championship

It’s a day Latvia will never forget.

Less than 24 hours after upsetting USA to win bronze at the men’s World Hockey Championship, the Latvian government elected to declare Monday to celebrate the victory.

It was Latvia’s first medal at a top-division event, winning bronze in a tournament the nation co-hosted with Finland.

According to Reuters, the last-minute decision to declare a holiday caused some businesses in the area. But that didn’t stop over 50,000 people from attending the Freedom Monument in Riga to celebrate the momentous victory in the nation’s hockey history.

After losing the first two games of the World Championship, Latvia went undefeated in the rest of the round-robin. They then shocked Sweden in the quarterfinal to advance to the final four for the first time every at any level. Latvia then went on to take two leads against Canada, only for the eventual tournament champions to take over in the end.

Latvia then took multiple leads against the United States, but found themselves trailing near the end. A pair of goals for Calgary Wranglers defenseman Kristians Rubins – the game-tying and the eventual medal-winner – would help make history for one of the proudest hockey nations in the world.

Before this year, Latvia had never finished better than seventh at the World Championship. But the past few years have seen some significant success for the country, including beating Canada at home in 2021, qualifying for the 2022 Olympics and beating Czechia to advance to the quarterfinal for the first time at the summer world juniors.

But nothing beats coming third in a 16-team pool in a tournament that means so much to the European competitors.

Vancouver Canucks goaltending prospect Arturs Silovs was named MVP of the tournament, and top goaltender, the first time any Latvian has ever been given one of the tournament’s directorate awards.