Sweden, Czech Republic will play for World Junior Championship title

When the puck drops on Monday night, Jan. 5, at the IIHF World Junior Championship gold medal game, the two-time defending champion United States won’t be there, having been eliminated in the quarterfinals three days earlier. Nor will 20-time tournament champion Canada, which bowed out in the semifinals.

Instead, it’ll be the Swedes vs. the Czechs for supremacy in under-20 hockey.

That’s just fine with Czech forward Vaclav Nestrasil, who late Sunday night reveled in his team’s 6-4 upset of Canada in the second semifinal in front of an announced 7,215 at Grand Casino Arena.

“It kind of shows the quality of international hockey right now,” Nestrasil said. “… The hockey world is getting closer and closer to each other, and that’s important for the sport to grow."

The win by the Czechs came a few hours after Sweden outlasted Finland 4-3 in a shootout. Sweden and the Czech Republic will meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday. This final will be the first since 2016, when Finland beat Russia, that neither the United States nor Canada is in the final.

Canada, which entered the semifinals averaging 6.4 goals per game in the tournament, suffered a stunning loss to a team it defeated 7-5 in the opener of group play. The Canadians just couldn’t grab control of the game, trailing 2-1 and 3-2 before a back-and-forth third period ended with the Czechs making more key plays.

“We could have managed the puck better, taken care of it better,” Canadian captain Porter Martone said. “But we left it all out there.”

“If you work hard, you’ll get the lucky bounces as we did on that fifth goal,” Czech coach Patrik Augusta said. “I believe you show respect to the team you play and work hard. It’s not going to win every game for you, but you will give yourself a chance, and that’s what we did tonight.”

The winning goal came after Martone scored with 2:41 left in regulation, jumping on a rebound to tie the score 4-4.

Cihar broke a 3-3 tie with 9:49 left in the third and goalie Michal Orsulak made 20 saves as the Czech Republic advanced to its first final since 2023, trying to win its first gold medal since 2001.

Canada will play Finland for the bronze medal at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 5. Both medal games are at Grand Casino Arena.

Curran, Adam Titlbach and Wild draft pick Adam Benak also scored for the Czech Republic. Tij Iginla, Zayne Parekh and Cole Reschny also scored for Canada. Jack Ivankovic made 31 saves.

“It was a very tough moment for us,” Augusta said. “But I felt the energy in the guys.”

The Czechs’ transition game came through late in the second period. On a 2-on-1 rush, Benak took a cross-ice pass from Curran and fired the puck into the net before Ivankovic could slide over. The goal, at 19:17, gave the Czechs a 3-2 lead.

Canada tied the score 3-3 at 3:59 of third when Reschny, a freshman forward for North Dakota, took a pass from Hage at the side of the net, cut to the front and stuffed the puck past Orsulak.

The Czech Republic, however, had an answer. Nestrasil fed Cihar at the Canadian blue line, and Cihar powered past a defender and beat Ivankovic for a 4-3 lead.

“When they tied it up, we just wanted more,” Nestrasil said. “We didn’t want to sit back and play defense, we wanted to score. We wanted to give it to them.”

“It’s gonna be a hard game, maybe even harder than today,” Czech forward Adam Novotny said. “Sweden is a real strong team. But we’ll go there as a team. We’ll fight for each other.”

BOXSCORE: Czech Republic 6, Sweden 4

Sweden 4, Finland 3 (SO): In the first semifinal, Anton Frondell scored in the eighth round of a shootout, giving Sweden a victory over Finland in a tense, entertaining matchup of rivals.

Sweden, seeking its first gold medal since 2012, took leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 only to see Finland rally to tie the score each time. The Finns made it 3-3 at 14:01 of the third period when Joona Saarelainen pounced on a rebound in the slot and hammered home a shot before goalie Love Harenstam could slide over.

In 10 minutes of 3-on-3 overtime, neither team scored as Harenstam and Finland’s Petteri Rimpinen took turns making big saves. Rimpinen finished with 33 saves through overtime, while Harenstam had 25.

“This game, it was crazy, long game, tight, overtime, everything. Just one goal and then it’s over,” said Frondell, who missed twice in the shootout before scoring the winner. “You love to play those games.”

Finland will play Canada in the bronze medal game at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 5.