The Americans opened the scoring, then Latvia tied it up. The pattern was repeated and at the end of a see-saw first quarter the score was 2:2.
After that though, the visitors steadily turned up their intensity and scored two more goals of their own while keeping the hosts at bay.
The win puts the USA in a strong position joint top of group B, while Latvia are now in a three-way tie for third with Kazakhstan and Finland. However, they still have a chance of making the playoff stages, with Norway up next on Friday in what is probably a must-win game, as after that come the powerful Finnish team and in-form Germany.