Kaspars Daugaviņš has been around. The 36-year-old Latvian captain is a veteran of the NHL, KHL and three Winter Olympics. This is his 12th IIHF World Championship, including last year, when he led the Latvians to a historic bronze medal. Last year Latvia won an emotional quarterfinal game over Sweden at home in Riga, and a win against the Swedes in Ostrava on Saturday would have gone a long way to helping the team get back to the quarters. For a while, it was fine until the middle of the second period when the Swedes struck for three goals in 26 seconds – a World Championship record – to take full control of the game.

“Well, it was 7-2,” Daugaviņš shrugged afterward on camera to Šport.sk. “We came back 2-2, had good emotions going, then for three or four minutes we lost concentration and they punished us.”

Just after Latvia scored twice early in the second period to tie the score, Sweden’s Rasmus Dahlin was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for charging. Immediately after killing that five-minute penalty came Sweden’s sudden offensive burst.

“It probably gets in your head because you think you’re going to score and have a chance to get the lead, and then you don’t, so you need to keep focused on playing five-on-five,” Daugaviņš figured. “We made a couple of mistakes and the game’s over.”

With now just two games remaining in the group stage, the Latvians are in a desperate situation. They sit fifth in Group B with seven points, three back of the USA and four back of Slovakia, which are the two opponents that remain on their schedule. If there’s a path back to the quarterfinals, they’ll probably have to win both of those games and hope at least one of the two drop their other remaining game. Considering the USA plays Kazakhstan on Sunday and Slovakia faces Sweden on Tuesday, the Slovaks look like they might be the path of least resistance.

“For us, it’s a do-or-die game,” Daugaviņš said bluntly about the Sunday night encounter with Slovakia. “We’re going to give it all. I know my team is never gonna give up. We’re gonna give them a fight and then we’ll see what happens.”

Daugaviņš is currently captain of Slovak club Dukla Michalovce, and he was asked if that made the matchup even more special for him.

“Yes and no,” he answered. “It’s the World Championship, so like any team, I’m preparing myself to win a game and to do my best. Against the Slovaks, we lost last year so we know we owe it to them.”