Latvia vs Norway Prediction: Expect a lot of pucks

Prediction for the Hockey World Cup Latvia vs Norway match, which will take place on May 17. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available.

The Latvian national team has shown very modest results in recent years. Even in the days of Bob Hartley, the Latvians managed to miss the playoffs at the home world championships, after which there has been no progress. They failed at the 2022 Olympics, then again at the 2022 World Cup, and they made a tough start to the current World Cup. In their two opening games at the tournament, they lost to Canada and Slovakia 0:6 and 1:2, respectively. It seemed that in their game against the Czech Republic, nothing would happen, but the Latvians broke the losing streak, earning a 4:3 victory in overtime.

The Norwegian side at World Cup 2023 has made a modest impression so far, but that shouldn't prevent them from struggling to survive in the elite world division. Despite being favorites in the tournament's first leg, the Vikings unexpectedly lost to Kazakhstan 3:4 in a shootout. Then they did not even try to fight for points against Switzerland, losing 0:3. On the other hand, they had a 1:0 win over Slovenia the day before. Such games against the underdogs allow the Red and Blue to remain in the top division each year.

Latvia and Norway have been opponents of a comparable level in recent years, and each time they have struggled somewhere between the relegation zone and making the playoffs without solving any global problems. And now they're in a habitual situation, so their head-to-head encounter is unimportant for the tournament. At the same time, the Latvians will be motivated because, in the last game, they unexpectedly beat the Czechs, while the Norwegians had a tough encounter with the Slovenians. On top of that, the home ice factor speaks in favor of the first team, so a bet on Latvia's victory with a handicap (-1.5) is inevitable.

We have already noted that Latvia and Norway are unlikely to meet too formidable challenges at the 2023 World Cup. Therefore they can afford to play together brightly and productively, as they have done in the last three world championships in a row. They've scored 17 goals against each other (5.67 average per game), which is not a bad average. In the upcoming match, they will not fall behind their usual rate, so the best option for the prediction is a total over 5.5, and separately we should look at the bet on the total over 0.5 points of Rudolf Balcers.