Arturs Silovs and Team Latvia are off to the quarter-finals at the IIHF World Hockey Championship for the first time since 2018 and only the second time since 2009, so it's a great accomplishment for the nation.
On Tuesday, Latvia took on Switzerland, who were undefeated going into the day and it was Silovs' squad who walked away with a massive 4-3 overtime win, which pushed them into 3rd in Group B and set up a quarter-final date with Sweden.
After the game, Silovs was asked a pretty dumb question by a Slovak reporter, who wondered if Latvia deserved to be in the quarter-finals over Slovakia. Silovs had a pretty great response to the question.
For context, Slovakia missed out on the quarter-finals for the first time since 2019, so it's likely the reporter was angry and frustrated with that before asking Silovs that question. Slovakia defeated Latvia 2-1 in the preliminary round, but finished two points back of Czechia for the fourth and final quarter-final spot in Group B.
As for Silovs, he's been very good for Latvia ever since entering as a replacement during their first game of the tournament against Canada. They'll look to shock the hockey world on Thursday when they face Sweden at 1:20 p.m. ET/10:20 a.m. PT.
