Jerofejevs will miss his team’s final preliminary round game against France at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.

The violation occurred at 02:46 of the 1st period of Latvia’s game against Austria.

Austrian forward Michael Raffl gained puck possession at the top of the face-off circle in the Austrian defensive zone. Seconds later Raffl lost control of the puck for a brief moment and then looked down to regain possession of the puck. At the same time, Jerofejevs moved along the blue line towards the boards. When Jerofejevs saw that Raffl lost control of the puck and was looking down, he decided to go check Raffl.

As he committed to deliver the body contact, Jerofejevs decided to follow through with a hit to Raffl that made contact with his head.

The Disciplinary Panel determined that, because Jerofejevs made contact with Raffl’s head when making contact, he violated Rule #124 (Checking to the Head and Neck Area). The Panel would also like to point out that Jerofejevs had plenty of time to make a different decision than hitting Raffl the way he did while Raffl was in a vulnerable position.