Samuel Montembeault has proven himself to his Canadian teammates who have blind faith in the Montreal Canadiens goalie. The Quebecer and his team are now preparing to face Latvia in the semi-finals of the IIHF World Championship.
Born in Bécancour, he signed a shutout in the preliminary round and won brilliantly ahead of Finland on Thursday. Montembeault received congratulations from the rest of the team for a solid performance in front of the defending champions, who played in front of their fans in Tampere.
In the video above, Jean-Charles Lajoie talks about Samuel Montembeault’s next deal.
“He was our best player tonight [jeudi]”And when the goalkeeper plays so well, that’s a good recipe for winning games,” said head coach André Tourigny after the game.
“We have an excellent goalkeeper in whom we have great confidence,” added striker Samuel Blais. We will show our best face against Latvia.”
The main stakeholder thanked his teammates while reminding of the team’s ultimate goal.
“It’s a great group. Our goal was to win the gold medal by participating in this tournament,” recalls Montembeault, representing Canada for the first time, after an experience that failed at the 2016 World Junior Championships.
The surprise guests
By reaching the semi-finals, Latvia can already congratulate themselves on setting the best course in the tournament’s history. The task will be difficult, but after defeating the Swedes, the underrated team can believe in it.
“I think for years we believed we could do it, but we were missing something. But we believed in it, we persevered and the character of this team paid off in the end. Now we’re going step by step and we’ll see what happens,” captain Kaspars Daugavins, former Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins, told the IIHF website.
As with the Canadian side, the Latvian goalkeeper will be kept in mind. Arturs Silovs leaves a beautiful calling card and confidence in the young goalkeeper is high again.
“Of course Arturs has a big part in our team’s success, he saved us when we made a mistake, but we limited it. They’re happening less and less, which gives us a chance,” explained Daugavins.
To beat the Latvians, the Canadians will have to stick to their game plan, Blais believes. In the first game of the tournament, the Maple Leafs defeated the small Baltic country 6-0.
“We have to continue what we did in the last two games,” said the Quebecer. We need to be concise with the pre-check and respect our systems. We played well defensively and blocked a lot of shots and we have to keep doing that.”
On Saturday afternoon this duel will take place on neutral ground at the Nokia Arena in Tampere.