Original Source: CHRIS STEVENSON - Calgary Sun

Posted on: Feb 19, 2014

SOCHI, RUSSIA  - He stood, wavering from side to side, looking almost too tired to stand up, looking like it was almost too much of an effort to raise his catching glove and brush the long, stringy strands of sweaty hair out of his face.

“It’s hard to describe. If we won the game I wouldn’t be tired at all,” said Kristers Gudlevskis, who came close to never having to buy another beer in his life in his native Latvia, or wherever Latvians congregate.

Maybe he’s done that anyway after coming a save or two away from delivering what might have been the biggest upset in Olympic hockey history by beating Canada, depending on how you feel about the Americans beating the Big Red Machine from the Soviet Union in 1980.

The 21-year-old is from Aizkraukle (“The Tidiest Town in Latvia, 2004”) on the Daugava River in central Latvia, a town of 8,600 known for the hillfort of Livs which was used by the Germans in the Middle Ages to build Aizkraukle Castle.

Gudlevskis held the fort against Canada in Latvia’s 2-1 loss in a tournament quarterfinal, making 55 saves.

OK, so he got a little bit of illegal help when Kristaps Sotnieks reached behind him during a goalmouth scramble eight minutes into the third period with the game tied 1-1 and put his hand over the puck, pulling it off the goal line.

This will still remain one of the almost-greatest stories in Olympic hockey and, surely, the performance best of his life so far, right?

“So far, I remember, yeah,” he said.

Gudlevskis was a fifth-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in last year NHL’s draft and Tampa general manager Steve Yzerman, who doubles as Team Canada’s executive director, had a good seat to watch the prospect turn back some of the greatest players in the world.

Was there anymore significance in such a great performance by his country because it was in front of his boss?

“I play for my teammates because they play so good every game, they do everything,” he said. “They did everything tonight and I just wanted to give them the opportunity to win this game.”

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