Canada’s victory over Latvia’s national hockey squad in the preliminary round of the 2005 World Championship in Austria came as little surprise, but the trouble it took has observers talking.

Canada won 6-4 over Latvia in an April 30 game that many predicted would be much more one-sided, especially after Latvia’s head coach, Leonīds Beresņevs, opted to initially put Edgars Masaļskis in the goal rather than the veteran Artūrs Irbe.

The first goal of the game came 2:55 into the first period, when Canada’s Brendan Morrison scored on a power play. But Latvia’s Aleksandrs Semjonovs answered about a half-minute later, getting the puck past Canadian goalkeeper Martin Brodeur, according to official game statistics posted on IHWC.net.

During the second period, Canada’s offense turned up the heat, adding four more goals, while Latvia got just one more off the stick of Ģirts Ankipāns. After Canada’s fourth goal of the period, Irbe replaced Masaļskis as Latvia’s goalkeeper.

Canada’s 5-2 lead going into the third period may have appeared solid, but Latvia wasn’t quite finished. Just over a minute into the period, Jānis Sprukts scored on a power play. A few minutes later, Kārlis Skrastiņš added another point, bringing Latvia to within one goal of a tie with the reigning world champions. But then Canada’s Rick Nash, who had already scored two goals during the game, added another to push his team to its 6-4 victory.

Masaļskis had 24 saves on 29 shots on goal, while Irbe had 15 saves for 16 shots on goal. Canada’s Brodeur had 20 saves for 24 shots of goal.

The game, played in Innsbruck’s Olympiaworld center, was watched by 5,344 spectators.

Latvia next faces the United States in a game scheduled May 3 in Innsbruck.

The two Latvian banks that the U.S. government claims are “a danger to the international community” say they adhere to their nation’s banking regulations.

Multibanka and VEF banka, two of the nation’s smaller banks, were singled out April 21 by the U.S. Treasury Department as “primary money laundering concerns.” The Treasury Department is proposing that American banks not be allowed to have dealings with the two Latvian banks.

Svetlana Dzene, chair of Multibanka’s board of directors, said in an April 22 statement posted on the bank’s Web site that the institution doesn’t understand the U.S. government’s action. Multibanka doesn’t have any unidentified clients and has no information about any clients engaged in financial fraud, Dzene said. The U.S. government’s action, she added, threatens the bank’s reputation.

VEF banka, in an April 22 statement posted on its Web site, said that since last autumn it has not received any requests from correspondent banks, including those in the United States, questioning the legality of funds. The U.S. government’s action, VEF banka said, was completely unexpected.

The Treasury Department action was taken under a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act, which generally addresses concerns about terrorism.

The U.S. Treasury Department has designated two of Latvia’s smaller banks as “primary money laundering concerns” and is proposing that American banks be forbidden from dealings with them.

Multibanka and VEF banka, both based in Rīga, were singled out under a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act, approved by Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. The act generally addresses concerns about terrorism.

“These two Latvian banks represent a danger to the international community because they facilitate the placement and movement of dirty money in the global financial system,” Daniel Glaser, the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, said in a statement released April 21.

“This action has been taken to protect the U.S. financial system from abuse,” the U.S. Embassy in Rīga announced in a separate press release, “and comes after a lengthy U.S. government review of VEF Bank’s and Multibanka’s business practices and compliance with international anti-money laundering norms.”

Spokespeople for the two banks were not immediately available for comment.

Multibanka, Latvia’s oldest commercial bank, was founded in 1988 as a branch of the Soviet Union’s Foreign Economic Relations Bank and was nationalized in 1991. It ranked as the nation’s 15th largest bank out of 23 listed by the Association of Latvian Commercial Banks.

The Treasury Department said that a large share of Multibanka’s activity involves transferring money out of Latvia, that Russian and other shell companies have used the bank to facilitate financial crime, and that some criminals have used the bank in cases of financial fraud.

VEF banka was founded in 1992. It is the 21st largest bank in the nation.

The bank was singled out because of what the Treasury Department says are VEF’s lax controls against money laundering and because less than 20 percent of those who use the bank’s confidential services are Latvian residents.

Although the U.S. Embassy emphasized that the Treasury Department’s action is aimed at the two banks and not at the Latvian banking system, it urged the Latvian government to take “aggressive steps” to stem money laundering.