Hockey players from Latvia who are not in the National Hockey League have been getting some coverage in U.S. newspapers. Georgijs Pujacs of the Elmira Jackals of New York and Vilnis Nikolaisons of the Sun Valley Suns of Idaho have been featured in the past week.

Mike Strobel, announcer for the Elmira Jackals, e-mailed us with a link to a story on Pujacs that appeared Dec. 24 in the local newspaper, the Star-Gazette. Pujacs is a defenseman for the team and is one of two Jackals from Latvia. The other is Alex Andreyev. The Elmira Jackals are part of the United Hockey League.

Meanwhile, it has been a good year for Nikolaisons, one of the few Latvians in Idaho, writes Jeff Cordes in the Dec. 29 edition of the Idaho Mountain Express. Nikolaisons is a left wing for the Sun Valley Suns.