Winning a bronze medal would have been enough for Vancouver Canucks prospect Arturs Silovs. It was a historic accomplishment for Latvia, who had never before even played in the medal round at an IIHF tournament.
Along with the team accomplishment, however, Silovs also left the tournament with some individual hardware.
Silovs was named the most valuable player at the World Championship, an incredible accomplishment for the 22-year-old goaltender, who didn't even begin the tournament as Latvia's starter. Silovs finished the tournament with a .921 save percentage and was 7-2-0 in his nine starts for Latvia. He played all but five minutes for Latvia after coming into their first game in relief.
Unsurprisingly, Silovs was also named the tournament's best goaltender by the World Championship directorate, an award previously won by the likes of Andrei Vasilevskiy, Pekka Rinne, and Sergei Bobrovsky.
The top defenceman and forward were both from the gold-medal match: Canada's Mackenzie Weegar was named the top defenceman by the directorate and Germany's J.J. Peterka was named the best forward.
Beyond the MVP and directorate award, Silovs was also named to the tournament All-Star Team as selected by the media.
Weegar and Germany's Moritz Seider were the two defenceman on the All-Star Team, while Paterka, USA's Rocco Grimaldi, and Czechia's Dominik Kubalik were the three forwards.
