He may have lost but Latvian goalie Kristers Gudlevskis may have given the best hockey performance at these Olympic Games.
Gudlevskis, a prospect with the Tampa Bay Lightning, stopped 55 of 57 shots on the way to a 2-1 loss against Canada. Shots from some of the NHL's best players including Sidney Crosby and Patrick Sharp.
He's currently spending time with the Syracuse Crunch, the Lightning's AHL affiliate making $55,000 a year.
He's got a respectable 11-8 record and a 2.90 goals against average, nothing to indicate that he'd be able to put on this kind of a performance.
To compare, Finnish goalie Tuuka Rask faced 37 shots against the Russians in a 3-1 win on Wednesday. But he IS Tuuka Rask, one of the NHL's top goalies. And Sweden's netminder Henrik Lundqvist hasn't faced a real challenge yet.
Gudlveskis, 21, wasn't even Latvia's starter and only got the nod because veteran Latvian netminder Edgars Masalskis played and won yesterday against Switzerland.
Hockey experts and fans on Twitter sang Gudlveskis' praises after the game and rightfully so.
One quick-fingered internet user even changed the goalie's Wikipedia page to something more accurate.
Settle down Oilers fans, you can't sign him. Tampa Bay beat you to that.
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