When you come from a country of less than two million people, making the NHL is about as tall of an order as the 368.5-metre radio and TV tower in Riga, Latvia.

Yet time and again, players from the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship host nation have showed the skill and determination required to compete against the world’s top pros. Those same attributes have kept Latvia in the top Worlds division ever since 1997.

Now is a fitting time to celebrate 10 magical Latvian NHL moments.

1) Dinamo Riga ties Flames in NHL premiere (1988)

Starting in 1975-76 during the Soviet era, NHL clubs hosted USSR teams in exhibition games known as the Super Series every few years. Latvian legend Helmuts Balderis led CSKA Moscow with five goals and two assists in Super Series 1980, where the perennial Soviet champs won their five-game series by defeating the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, and Quebec Nordiques.

However, only in 1988 did Latvia’s flagship club, Dinamo Riga, finally visit North America to face NHLers. Debuting with a 2-2 tie versus the Calgary Flames on 28 December 1988 was significant since the Terry Crisp-coached powerhouse went on to win its first Stanley Cup that season.

Dinamo Riga goalie Arturs Irbe, 21, made 38 saves in front of 18,679 fans at the Calgary Saddledome. Aleksandrs Kercs and Aleksandrs Belavskis scored for Riga, and Perry Berezan and Hakan Loob answered for Calgary.

Riga coach Vladimir Yurzinov was asked afterwards if he’d thought his club would earn a draw with the Flames and admitted: “Not in a million years.” Flames sniper Joe Nieuwendyk commented on Irbe’s equipment: “The thing that caught my eye was the size of his pads. That guy was all pads. We had to go top shelf on him!”

2) Balderis becomes first Latvian NHLer at age 37 (1989)

After retiring in 1985 in his mid-30’s, a high-scoring superstar right winger decides to lace up his skates again and secure an NHL job. Those words could describe either Guy Lafleur, who won five Stanley Cups with Montreal before coming back with the New York Rangers in 1988-89, or Helmuts Balderis, who won three IIHF World Championships with the USSR before becoming the first Latvian NHLer with the Minnesota North Stars in 1989-90.

“Elektrichka” had a short tenure under head coach Pierre Page, scoring three goals and six assists in 26 games. But the moustachioed Dinamo Riga forward made his mark. In a 4-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on 2 November 1989, he potted his first goal at age 37, the oldest player in NHL history to achieve that feat. Today, Balderis is 68, and the record still stands.

3) Ozolins stars as Avs win first Stanley Cup (1996)

Trading away a former first overall NHL pick can be controversial, but when the Colorado Avalanche sent Owen Nolan (#1, 1990) to the San Jose Sharks for Sandis Ozolins in 1995, it paid off handsomely.

“Ozo,” a colourful offensive defenceman from Riga, led the Colorado D-corps with 50 points in 66 regular-season games. Better yet, the 23-year-old added another 19 playoff points as the franchise captained by Joe Sakic and backstopped by Patrick Roy won its first Stanley Cup. It occurred in the Avalanche’s first season in Denver after relocating from Quebec City.

Ozolins, ultimately a three-time Olympian with 875 NHL games under his belt, remains the only Latvian ever to hoist Lord Stanley’s mug.

Out of all the big plays Ozolins made during the ‘96 Cup run, one stands out: his double-overtime 4-3 winner in Game Six of the second round at Chicago. It put the Avalanche into the conference final, where they’d upset the Detroit Red Wings, coming off a record-setting 62-win season.

4) Vasiljevs beats odds to make bigs (1999)

Did you know that only four undrafted Latvians have made the NHL? That list includes enforcer Raitis Ivanans, goalies Matiss Kivlenieks and Peteris Skudra, and journeyman forward Herberts Vasiljevs. The son of former Latvian national team coach Haralds Vasiljevs was the first of the four to crack the big league.

Vasiljevs appeared in five games with the Florida Panthers and went pointless in 1998-99. The 22-year-old winger debuted in a 3-1 road loss to the Buffalo Sabres on 9 April. NHL-wise, he would finish with a total of eight goals and seven assists in 51 career games after stints with the Atlanta Thrashers and Vancouver Canucks. Vasiljevs’ professional reputation rests more on the 14 seasons he spent with the DEL’s Krefeld Penguins than anything he did in North America.

Regardless, the example of this three-time Olympian and 11-time World Championship participant shows the importance of never giving up on a dream.

5) Irbe backstops Carolina to Cup final (2002)

Arturs Irbe won back-to-back IIHF World Championship gold medals with the Soviet Union in 1989 and 1990, but leading the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup final for the first time in the franchise’s 23-year NHL history was a whole different animal. Although the Canes entered the 2002 post-season as the Southeast Division champions, that fact was misleading, as their 91 points were the second-fewest among all NHL playoff teams.

Irbe, 35, lost his starting job to Kevin Weekes when Carolina topped the New Jersey Devils in six games in the first round. Yet he got it back after Weekes stumbled against the Montreal Canadiens in the second round, which Carolina also won in six games.

Fans in Raleigh whooped it up at their tailgate parties and inside the arena as “Archie” peaked in the Eastern Conference finals. The future IIHF Hall of Famer never allowed more than two goals per game as the Canes eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs in six games. He posted 31 saves in a 3-0 road shutout in Game Four.

However, the finals brought an insurmountable obstacle in the all-star Red Wings. Irbe couldn’t upset Scotty Bowman’s team again, as he did in the 1994 playoffs with San Jose. Irbe starred with 50 saves in Game Four, but allowed Igor Larionov’s triple-overtime goal in a 3-2 loss. Steve Yzerman lifted his third Cup after Detroit won Game Five 3-2.

“At the end of the day, the Wings are the ones celebrating, and we’ve got to go to the locker room and shave our playoff beards and move on,” Irbe said.

6) Zoltoks goes on Wild playoff run (2003)

It’s hard to believe Sergejs Zoltoks tragically died at age 31 due to heart failure nearly 17 years ago. For supporters of both Latvia and the Minnesota Wild, one of the hard-working Riga-born centre’s many career highlights was his 2003 NHL playoff run.

Coming off a personal best in regular-season points (42), Zoltoks carried that momentum forward. The 30-year-old assistant captain engineered the most famous goal in Wild history in overtime in Game Seven of the first round against the Colorado Avalanche. Zoltoks rushed the puck through the neutral zone and earned his second assist of the night by feeding Andrew Brunette, who beat Patrick Roy with a backhand deke for the 3-2 winner.

The Wild had defeated Colorado after rallying from a 3-1 series deficit, and they found themselves in the same hole in the second round against the Markus Naslund-led Vancouver Canucks. Again, Minnesota came back all the way, making NHL history as the first club to do so twice in one playoff year. And again Zoltoks delivered two assists in a Game Seven win, this time 4-2.

This Cinderella run ended when the Anaheim Ducks swept the Wild in the conference final. Yet Zoltoks, who proudly represented Latvia at five Worlds, had made a world of difference with his 13 points in 18 games.

7) Latvian stars join forces to support at-risk kids (2003)

Playing in the NHL is a chance to make big money, but money isn’t everything in life, and Sergejs Zoltoks and Arturs Irbe understood that reality.

In 2003, they collected sticks, pucks, and other memorabilia from close to 120 NHL players for an online auction to benefit the Kids First Fund. This non-profit organization in Wisconsin built shelters for orphaned and abused children in Latvia, among other charitable initiatives.

It showed the big hearts Zoltoks and Irbe had for their Baltic homeland, and it wouldn’t be the last time. Not every hockey highlight is on the ice.

8) Skrastins sets ironman record for NHL D-men (2007)

For sports fans in the U.S., the marquee event of February 2007 was quarterback Peyton Manning winning his first Super Bowl as the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17. Yet for lovers of hockey history, it was incredibly impressive to see Karlis Skrastins break Tim Horton’s record for the most consecutive games by an NHL defenceman just four days later. That record dated back to 1968.

At age 32, the indefatigable Riga native played his 487th straight game on 8 February against the Atlanta Thrashers. One of the most prolific shot-blockers in league history, Skrastins frequently sported bruises and ice packs, but never complained. Questioned about the secret behind his endurance, he told NHL.com: “I don’t have a big secret. Maybe just hard work and a lot of effort. I love what I do, and pain is part of our hockey game.”

Sadly, Skrastins perished in 2011 in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster. But the two-time Olympic team captain’s courage lives on in the memories of hockey fans worldwide.

9) Girgensons gets voted into NHL All-Star Game (2015)

Zemgus Girgensons was the first Latvian ever taken in the first round of the NHL Draft (14th overall, 2012), but the gritty Buffalo Sabres forward gained a different kind of distinction when he was voted into the 2015 NHL All-Star Game in Columbus.

In fairness, Girgensons, 21, was on track for a career-best offensive season (15+15=30), but nonetheless, his selection was much more reflective of the overwhelming passion of Latvian fans. He got a jaw-dropping 1,574,896 online votes. That easily outstripped the other fan-voted all-stars, each of whom had won multiple Stanley Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks: Corey Crawford, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Jonathan Toews.

IIHF.com experienced a similar phenomenon in May 2020 when Latvia powered to gold in our fan-voted #VirtualWorlds.

Asked by ESPN.com about potentially bragging to his Sabres teammates about his All-Star Game berth, Girgensons immediately shot that down: “I would get eaten alive, that’s for sure.” He was held pointless in Columbus as Team Toews outlasted Team Foligno 17-12, and he requested that Latvian fans refrain from voting him in again in 2016. Still, it was a fun bit of All-Star Game lore.

10) Merzlikins racks up shutouts as NHL rookie (2020)

For fans in Europe, Elvis Merzlikins’ success as a first-year NHLer came as no surprise. After all, this personable, athletic netminder had starred at four Worlds, including Latvia’s eighth-place finish in 2018, and had twice been honoured as the Swiss NLA’s top goalie with HC Lugano.

In 2019-2020, Merzlikins didn’t find his game immediately. The Pittsburgh Penguins blitzed him in his NHL debut with the Columbus Blue Jackets, a 7-2 road loss on 5 October, and he failed to get a win in his first 10 games. At one point, he stopped speaking to reporters.

Yet when Merzlikins got hot, he dominated. The 191-cm, 82-kg rookie earned five shutouts during an eight-game stretch between 11 January and 7 February. He became a cult player in the Ohio capital, even though Finland’s Joonas Korpisalo claimed the 2020 playoff spotlight with 85 saves in the Jackets’ 3-2 quintuple-overtime loss to open the first round against the eventual Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning. In September, Merzlikins was named to the NHL’s All-Rookie Team.

Merzlikins has had ups and downs in his sophomore NHL season, but Elvis has definitely not left the building.