WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah ? Atvars Tribuncovs finished off a three-goal rally and Latvia stayed alive in the Olympic hockey tournament by tying Slovakia 6-6 Sunday night ? eliminating the Slovaks from any chance of advancing.
Latvia (1-0-1) will play Germany (2-0) on Tuesday night with the winner advancing to the eight-team finals. Germany beat Austria 3-2 earlier Sunday.
Slovakia (0-1-1), which has by far the most NHL players of the eight preliminary round teams, bounced back from its 3-0 upset loss Saturday to Germany to open a 6-3 lead with the help of goals by the newly arrived Josef Stumpel, Marian Hossa and Pavol Demitra.
But Latvia goalie Sergejs Naumovs ? playing in the unexpected absence of Arturs Irbe of the Carolina Hurricanes ? tightened up after a dreadful first two periods to shut out Slovakia in the third period. Latvia also got a big boost from NHL defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh, who had three assists.
Slovakia, with a far different lineup than it put on the ice against Germany, needed just 11 seconds to score when Stumpel's hard slap shot from the blue line whizzed by Naumovs' glove.
It was the third fastest goal in Olympic history ? and start of a trend as three of the four goals in a 2-2 first period were scored on nearly identical shots, by Slovakia's Jan Pardavy and Latvia's Alexander Nizivijs. Vyacheslav Fanduls also scored for Latvia.
Unlike Saturday, when NHL players Miroslav Satan and Ziggy Palffy weren't factors against Germany, Slovakia had plenty of offense as consecutive goals by Hossa, Lubomir Visnovsky, Robert Petrovicky and Demitra in the final 14 1/2 minutes of the second period made it 6-3.
"We've got a great team here, and we hope this is going to work out," Demitra said.
It didn't, as Latvia ? upset that the NHL wouldn't allow Irbe to play, even though he wasn't in the Hurricanes' lineup Sunday ? answered with Alexander Macijevskis' second goal of the game late in the second period and third-period goals by Alexander Belavskis, at 4:45, and Tribuncovs, at 7:43.
The NHL wouldn't allow Carolina to excuse Irbe for the game, saying the quality of play could be affected if Hurricanes goalie Tom Barrasso got hurt and a minor-league backup were used.
The ruling seemed contradictory to the NHL's decision allowing Colorado backup David Aebischer to play the entire preliminary round for Switzerland after he shut out Minnesota 6-0 on Friday night. The Avalanche called up a minor leaguer as goalie Patrick Roy's backup until the Olympic break starts Thursday.