By by Derek O’Brien|28 MAY 2023

In a tournament where Latvia won a medal for the first time, the country has also for the first time produced the IIHF World Championship MVP – goaltender Arturs Silovs.

The 22-year-old played all but the first 4:56 of the tournament for the Latvians and backstopped them to 7-wins in their last 8-games, en route to the historic bronze medal. He was also the goalie on the Media All-Star Team and the Top Goaltender chosen by the IIHF Directorate.

Silovs started 9, appearing in all 10 of Latvia’s games and had a 7-2 record with a 2.20 GAA, a 92.1 save percentage, and a shutout to go with the bronze medal.

Since it was first awarded in 1999, Silovs is the 5th goalie to be named World Championship MVP following Dennis Endras (Germany 2010), Viktor Fasth (Sweden 2011), Pekka Rinne (Finland 2014) and Juho Olkinuora (Finland 2022).

The defenders on the Media All-Star Team are MacKenzie Weegar from Canada and Moritz Seider from Germany. Weegar, who was also the Directorate’s Top Defender, led all d-men with 11 points, which tied him for fourth in overall tournament scoring. Seider, meanwhile, was a steady two-way force on the German blueline. Both defenders led their respective finalist teams in time on ice.

The forwards on the Media All-Star Team include Germany’s John Peterka, the USA’s Rocco Grimaldi and Czechia’s Dominik Kubalik, with Peterka being named the Directorate’s Top Forward. Grimaldi led the tournament in scoring with 14 points, with Kubalik and Peterka’s 12 tying for second. Kubalik led the tournament with eight goals despite going out in the quarter-finals.

MEDIA ALL-STAR TEAM

Goaltender: LATVIA #31 SILOVS Arturs
Defender: CANADA #52 WEEGAR MacKenzie
Defender: GERMANY #53 SEIDER Moritz
Forward: GERMANY #33 PETERKA John
Forward: USA #56 GRIMALDI Rocco
Forward: CZECHIA #18 KUBALIK Dominik

IIHF DIRECTORATE AWARDS

Goaltender: LATVIA #31 SILOVS Arturs
Defender: CANADA #52 WEEGAR MacKenzie
Forward: GERMANY #33 PETERKA John

MVP: LATVIA #31 SILOVS Arturs

Source: iihf.com