Michal Jakubec, take a bow!

The forward, who stepped up to the Dukla Trencin first team this season, broke the deadlock in a tense U18 Men’s World Championship semi-final to send Slovakia to its first gold-medal game since 2003.

His effort, 17 seconds before the end of the middle frame, was enough to halt Latvia’s fairytale run, while at the other end his team-mates produced a huge defensive effort in the third to deny any hint of a fight back.

Goalie Samuel Hrenak, another Trencin hockey graduate, made 14 saves as Slovakia’s class of 2026 continues to target hockey history on home ice. After recording his first shut-out of the tournament, he was almost lost for words at the prospect of playing for gold.

“It’s great, unbelievable,” he said. “I can’t really describe it. We are so hyped, I don’t know what to say. It’s like a dream come true.”

And he could not be happier for the man who scored the winning goal. The two started out on the same youth teams in Povazska Bystrica, a short drive from Trencin. And the goalie paid tribute to his colleague.

“He’s playing so well here,” he said. “Michal’s having a wonderful tournament. I’m so proud of him, so excited for him.”

Latvia, meanwhile, can still clinch a first-ever World U18s medal in tomorrow’s bronze-medal match-up - and had no excuses after the semi-final reverse.

“They were just better than us,” admitted forward Olivers Murnieks. “We had a lot of turnovers in our end zone in the second period. That kind of killed our momentum first and it’s tough getting. Then scoring that late goal was even harder to swallow.”

The opening frame was an arm wrestle. Latvia appeared happy to allow the Slovaks to keep the puck, as long as they didn’t try to bring it anywhere near Patriks Plumins’ net. 

Although Timothy Kazda’s line showed some signs of menace, there was little chance to turn O-zone possession into serious chances. And when counterattacking opportunities emerged, the Latvians stayed strong: witness Ricards Lisovskis ushering Sebastian Brath to the corner and snuffing out a half chance.

Crucially, Latvia stayed out of the box. In the preliminary round game, Slovakia’s punitive power play plundered four goals; today the host nation had to wait until midway through the second to get its special teams on the ice.

That PP caused problems: Maxim Simko fired straight at Plumins and later scoring leader Kazda got a good look between the hash marks but couldn’t trouble the Latvian goalie.

There wasn’t much to test Samuel Hrenak at the other end, although Olivers Murnieks had a clear sight after Daniels Reidzans forced a turnover. And after the penalty kill, Ricards Rutkis almost created a goal for Kristers Obuks. The Latvian forward scored in the group game, but Hrenak stopped him tonight.

In a game that was high on battle but not always full of flair, Matta took things into his own hands with four to play in the middle frame. His blistering rush slalomed through the Latvian defence but when his initial shot was blocked his team-mates were too slow to get to the net and the follow-up came to nothing.

But with 17 seconds left in the frame, Slovakia got the opening goal. It wasn’t the prettiest, but few in the Pavol Demitra Stadium cared much about that as Oliver Botka exchanged passes with Tomas Selic before banging in a shot that bounced around the crease. Jakubec was first to react, stuffing it home and celebrating wildly.

And things stayed wild until the hooter, with Simon Potocka and Tomass Edmanis-Hermanis dropping the gloves as the buzzer sounded. Neither player returned after the intermission after being ejected from the game. 

While a one-goal game might not have been what every fan wanted, it suited Slovak defender Filip Kovalcik perfectly.

“Both teams were good defensively,” he said. “It was maybe boring for the fans but it wasn’t boring for me. I enjoyed it and we won. We’re looking forward to the next game.”

Jakubec came close to doubling the Slovak lead at the start of the third with a shot that rippled the outside of Plumins’ net. Then Latvia’s first power play of the game almost brought a shorthanded goal as Samuel Karsay sprinted down the ice, only to be denied by the goalie.

There were still more than 12 minutes to play, but every Slovak clearance was cheered to rafters as the home team produced a solid penalty kill.

And even at equal strength, Slovakia focused on denying Latvia any attacking momentum. With four minutes to play in the final frame, the Latvians had mustered just one shot on target despite trying to chase the game.

With 75 seconds remaining, Plumins made way for a sixth skater, and on 59:10 Latvia called a time-out in search of one last shot at salvation. But there was no way through as the hooter started the Slovak party in earnest.

After putting in the hard yards to help protect Hrenak’s shut-out, Kovalcik talked up his goalie’s performance.

“He’s a confident guy and he’s my best friend here,” the defender said. “I’m happy for him and I’m sure he’ll be even better in the next game.”

And Hrenak returned the compliment after a powerful defensive display to blunt the Latvian offence.

“It’s great to get a shut-out but the guys helped me a lot,” he said. “Fourteen saves is not a big amount of shots because they played so good in front of me. Offensively we got just one goal, but it was enough.”