2025 World Juniors Notebook: Canada in tailspin as USA wins New Year's Eve showdown
OTTAWA, Ontario – There was plenty left to play for on the final day of round-robin action at the 2025 World Junior Championship.
Switzerland and Kazakhstan started the day off, with the winner advancing to the quarter-finals and the loser heading to the relegation round. It was close for the majority of the game, but Switzerland finally pulled ahead to secure the victory and clinch a quarter-final berth.
Finland and Latvia faced off with second place in Group A up for grabs. Czechia and Sweden – the only undefeated nations at the event – squared off, with the winner claiming the top spot in Group B and a much easier path to the medal round.
Finally, the main event capped off the day as Canada and the United States battled for the top spot in Group A.
Finland briefly first in Group A
The Finns dispatched the pesky Latvians 3-0 in their final round-robin match. In a game devoid of much action, Finland scored a goal in each frame – receiving contributions from Benjamin Rautiainen, Jesse Kiiskinen, and Kasper Halttunen.
Petteri Rimpinen turned aside 28 shots to record his first shutout of the event and raised his tournament save percentage to 0.947.
That result catapulted them into first place atop Group A… for about five hours anyway. They then had to wait and see what would shake out in the Canada-USA game to determine if they would finish second or third in the group.
With the defeat, Latvia finished fourth and will play Sweden in the quarter-finals.
The battle for top spot in Group B
Sweden and Czechia clashed with the top seed in the quarter-finals and a matchup with Latvia on the line. The loser faced the daunting prospect of meeting Canada or the United States.
Needless to say, there was plenty of motivation.
A scoreless first period was anything but uneventful, as the two teams combined for 32 shots in the opening frame. It was fast and ferocious hockey.
The floodgates opened up quickly in the second frame as the birthday boy, Herman Träff scored twice in the first seven minutes. The Czechs made it 2-1 before Sweden scored two more goals in 30 seconds to take a commanding lead.
A nasty penalty shot goal by captain, Eduard Sale brought Czechia back to within striking distance but that was all the team could muster. They settled for second place, as Sweden won the group.
Scoring woes, undisciplined penalties plague Canada in loss to United States
There's never a dull moment when Canada and USA meet on New Year's Eve at this tournament.
Oh boy, do these two teams ever dislike each other. Neither squad had been very physical or nasty in their first three contests. That changed the minute the puck was dropped on New Year's Eve.
Fast, hard-hitting, and post-whistle rough stuff was the name of the game through the opening frame. And while the home crowd was about as loud as humanly possible, it was the Americans who struck first as Cole Hutson cut to the middle and snapped a perfectly placed shot before flexing his muscles to the crowd.
It was the first time Carter George had been beaten in this event.
A scoreless second period was dominated by penalties – the vast majority of which were taken by Canada. Once again, questions about usage reared their ugly head.
One has to wonder why a player like Cole Beaudoin is a depth penalty-killing option for this team when his presence on the roster should be to hit, defend, and kill penalties.
Canada looked the most dangerous at even-strength in this game than in any of their previous round robin matches, but their inability to stay out of the box in this game was costly. Right after Bradly Nadeau had scored on their own power play to tie the game 1-1, Sawyer Mynio took a cross-checking penalty that sent USA back to the man-advantage, where Danny Nelson scored to restore the American lead.
That wasn't the end of the undisciplined play, either. Canada took three more minors after the Mynio's, and it was Easton Cowan's boarding penalty that was the nail in their coffin. Cole Eiserman sniped from distance to give USA their first multi-goal lead of the night, and Ryan Leonard buried the empty netter for a 4-1 finish.
The round robin is over. The United States’ win sets them up to face Switzerland in the quarter-finals, while Canada finishes third and will play Czechia for the second straight year.
Canada looked better for large stretches, but the same issues at 5-on-5 continued to plague them. They generated almost no rush or cycle game, very few cross-slot passes, and not enough high-danger shots.
The United States showed vulnerability tonight. Even so, it wasn’t enough for Canada to score at even strength. Through three games against the Americans, Latvians, and Germans, they have just one 5-on-5 goal to show for their efforts.
But this is the roster they assembled. A team with stellar goaltending, capable shutdown defence, and heavy checkers. They don't have a game-breaking scorer – not with Porter Martone in the press box. And it's unreasonable to expect a barely-turned-17-year old Gavin McKenna to save them.
They've lost two of their four preliminary round games, and now, losing cannot be an option from this point forward. But there comes a point where you just have to accept that this Canadian team may not have what it takes to medal. It will take a monumental, top-to-bottom effort against the Czechs to better their finish from last year.
And they'd better hope that they can score some goals.
Quarter-Finals (January 2)
Sweden vs. Latvia - 12:00pm ET (TD Place)
USA vs. Switzerland - 2:30pm ET (Canadian Tire Centre)
Finland vs. Slovakia - 5:00pm ET (TD Place)
Canada vs. Czechia - 7:30pm ET (Canadian Tire Centre)
