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Draisaitl’s Germany suffers setback in 4-3 loss to Latvia: Recap, Reaction, and Highlights
Team Germany Leon Draisaitl
Photo credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Feb 14, 2026, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Feb 14, 2026, 10:47 EST
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Team Germany suffered a setback to their 2026 Olympic campaign in the early hours of Saturday morning.
After picking up a 3-1 victory over Team Denmark on Thursday, the Germans fell 4-3 to Team Latvia on Saturday morning, albeit it didn’t hurt their chances of outright winning Group C, but more on that in the takeaways.
On Thursday, Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring just 23 seconds into the game and later picked up an assist on the third goal. Late in the game, Draisaitl got on the board with an assist as Tim Stützle was able to score with the netminder pulled, Draisaitl’s third point of the tournament and Stützle’s third goal.
The game started off quite well for Team Germany, as Lukas Reichel opened the scoring just two minutes into the game. Former Edmonton Oiler Dominik Kahun picked up an assist, as did Lukas Kalble. With about four minutes left in the first period, Dans Ločmelis tied the game at one for Team Latvia.
It didn’t take long for Team Germany to restore that lead, as Kalble scored just a minute and eight second later, with Draisaitl’s childhood friend Frederik Tiffels picking up an assist on that goal. Ločmelis scored the game-tying goal midway through the second period, then Eduards Tralmaks and Renārs Krastenbergs scored about three minutes apart midway through the third period.
Team Germany scored late in the third period to cut the lead to one, but were unable to find the game-tying goal despite numerous chances to do so, as Draisaitl lost two key faceoffs in the final minute of the game.

Takeaways…

  • Like with the game against Team Denmark on Thursday, Leon Draisaitl was arguably the best player on the ice. Although he was unable to find twine, he finished with a game-high 10 shots, over a third of Team Germany’s total shots. He also had numerous scoring opportunities, often missing the net on those chances.
  • It was a very Edmonton-like game for Draisaitl, as he had 28:30 minutes of ice time, the most for any player on either team. Toward the end of the game, Team Germany loaded up with Stützle, J.J. Peterka, and Moritz Seider in an attempt to tie the game.
  • Former Oiler Dominik Kahun picked up an assist in his 14 and a half minutes of ice time. The other former Oiler, Tobias Reider, played just eight minutes and took a penalty, finishing with two shots on goal.
  • Current Oiler Josh Samanski played over 20 minutes of ice time, finishing with a shot on goal. Shortly before Team Latvia scored to make it 3-2 in the third period, Team Germany had a power play, with Samanski having the best opportunity on that man-advantage.
  • Tough game for Philipp Grubauer between the pipes, as he allowed four goals on 22 shots for an .818 save percentage, a far cry from his performance on Thursday against Team Denmark.
  • Winning Group C was always going to require Team Germany to defeat Team USA. That doesn’t change with the loss, because assuming that Team USA beats Team Denmark on Saturday, they’ll have six points to Germany’s three. If Germany wins that game in regulation, they’ll have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Team USA.
  • In this hypothetical, things get a bit more confusing if Team Latvia also beats team Denmark, as all three teams will have finished with six points. Since the first tiebreaker with three teams is the points obtained in head-to-head games (all teams would have three points against one another), it’d come down to goal differential.
  • That isn’t much of a concern at this point, because Team Germany needs to defeat Team USA before this is even a concern. That game is on Sunday at 1:10 PM MT on Sunday, the final game of the group stage for any team in the Olympics.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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