Thursday is the eighth day of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, which is being held in Ottawa. The semifinals are Saturday, and the championship and third-place game are Sunday.
Quarterfinal round results
Sweden 3, Latvia 2 — David Edstrom (Nashville Predators) scored and Sweden held off a Latvia rally to advance to the semifinals.
“He’s been awesome,” Sweden captain Axel Sandin-Pellikka (Detroit Red Wings) said of Edstrom. “It feels like he wins every face-off. He’s really important. He fights hard, he always wants to win the puck battles. He’s awesome.”
Anton Wahlberg (Buffalo Sabres) and Zeb Forsfjall (Seattle Kraken) each scored for Sweden, and Melker Thelin (Utah Hockey Club) made 11 saves.
Eriks Mateiko (Washington Capitals) had two goals, Markus Sieradzkis (2025 NHL Draft eligible) had two assists, and Linards Feldbergs (2025 draft eligible) made 47 saves for Latvia.
“I think overall this team was probably the best team I ever played on in the Latvian junior teams,” Mateiko said. “I think we played our hearts out every day. It’s definitely a tough one today, going out like that. Close game. But a big thanks to all the guys and Feldbergs, especially. We wouldn’t be here without our goalie.”
Feldbergs finished the tournament with a .929 save percentage in starting all five games for Latvia. He faced 210 shots, 60 more than any goalie in the tournament.
“I think this is one of the best weeks of my life,” Feldbergs said. “I’m going to remember this tournament, [my] last World Juniors. It’s going to stay in my head and in my heart for the rest of my life.”
Forsfjall gave Sweden a 1-0 lead at 8:30 of the first period when he beat Feldbergs with a wrist shot under the glove on the rush.
Wahlberg one-timed a pass from Sandin-Pellikka in the slot to make it 2-0 at 9:52.
Edstrom scored on a rebound at the edge of the crease on the power play to push it to 3-0 at 3:57 of the second period.
Sweden thought it had taken a 4-0 lead when Edstrom scored at 9:52, but Latvia challenged for offside and the call on the ice was overturned.
Mateiko cut it to 3-1 at 10:13 when his wrist shot from the top of the slot beat Thelin past his blocker.
Mateiko scored his second goal of the game to cut it to 3-2 at 18:50 when he jammed in a rebound at the edge of the crease.
“I think we had maybe five or seven minutes in the second [period] where we were more, like, forcing the game,” Sweden coach Magnus Havelid said. “I could see it in the passing and stuff like that. Sometimes the game goes from one side to another side so quick because of the goals they scored. But in the third period, I think we played as good as we can.”
Sweden will play the winner of the United States-Switzerland game in the semifinals on Saturday.
Other quarterfinal games Thursday
United States vs. Switzerland (2:30 p.m. ET) — Trey Augustine (Detroit Red Wings) made 38 saves in a 4-1 win against Canada on Tuesday, looking more like the goalie who allowed seven goals in four games to help the U.S. win the gold medal at the 2024 WJC, rather than the one who allowed eight goals in his first two games in Ottawa. “He had his best performance of the event,” U.S. coach David Carle said Tuesday. “We know that to do what we want to do here he’s going to have to replicate that or potentially even play better.” The U.S. will also need more the power play that went 3-for-7 against Canada not the one that was 2-for-11 in its first three games. Defenseman Cole Hutson (Washington Capitals) drove the U.S. offense, tying for the tournament scoring lead with eight points (two goals, six assists), including the first goal against Canada. “Very dynamic,” Carle said of Hutson. “I knew he was good with the puck. I didn’t quite know he was that good, the deception and the ability to attack.” Switzerland reached the medal round after a 3-1 win against Kazakhstan on Tuesday. They lost 2-1 to Slovakia on Dec. 27 in a game that was tied until 3:16 was left in the third period, and then scored four power-play goals in the third period of a 7-5 loss to Sweden on Sunday.
Finland vs. Slovakia (5 p.m. ET) — Petteri Rimpinen (2025 draft eligible) is making the case for being the best goalie in the tournament. His 1.75 goals-against average and .947 save percentage are second in the WJC behind Canada’s Carter George (1.01 GAA, .963 save percentage), but Rimpinen has started all four games, compared to three for George. The 18-year-old has a W rating from NHL Central Scouting on its preliminary players to watch list for the 2025 NHL Draft, meaning he’s expected to be a sixth- or seventh-round pick. But he could be raising his stock with his play here. “In all of those four games that he has played, he’s outstanding, and he’s given the opportunity for us to win every night,” Finland captain Aron Kiviharju (Minnesota Wild) said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against … because he’s doing his job as good as he can.” Slovakia has been off since its 5-4 overtime win against Kazakhstan on Monday, when they allowed two short-handed goals in the final 3:23 of the third period before defenseman Maxim Strbak (Buffalo Sabres) scored in overtime. Forward Dalibor Dvorsky (St. Louis Blues) is tied for the tournament lead with four goals.
Czechia vs. Canada (7:30 p.m. ET) — It’s a rematch from the 2024 quarterfinals, which Czechia won 3-2 to send Canada to a fifth-place finish. Czechia will have seven players back from that game, including forwards Eduard Sale (Seattle Kraken) and Jakub Stancl (St. Louis Blues), who are tied for the tournament lead with four goals. Also back from that game is goalie Michael Hrabal (Utah Hockey Club), who made 28 saves in that victory. He’s been good in his three starts this year, with a .925 save percentage. He made 37 saves in a 4-2 loss to Sweden on Tuesday, but Czechia was whistled for seven penalties, which led to two Sweden goals. Discipline was a constant issue as they were short-handed 19 times in their four games. The only team penalized more was Canada, which was short-handed 22 times, and was called for 29 minor penalties. “It’s us,” Canada coach Dave Cameron said after a 4-1 loss to the U.S. on Tuesday. “We put ourselves in that position. We talk about it all the time, don’t let the referees get involved in it. We didn’t do a very good job of that tonight.” Canada also has issues offensively, scoring one 5-on-5 goal in its past three games. The players are confident they can play smarter and get their offense back on track. “I think with this group, it’s a great group,” said Canada captain Brayden Yager (Winnipeg Jets), one of four players back from last year’s game against Czechia. “We know that we have to have a short memory and move on the next game. … I don’t think we should be too frustrated. Doesn’t change the fact that we have to win the next three games to win a gold medal.”
Relegation game
Germany 4, Kazakhstan 3 — Julius Sumpf (2025 draft eligible) scored a tiebreaking power-play goal at 4:03 of the third period and Germany won the relegation-round game and assured itself of a spot in the field for the 2026 World Junior Championship in Minnesota.
On the face-off after a penalty to Kazakhstan forward Alexander Kim (2025 draft eligible), Sumpf won the puck back to defenseman Edwin Tropmann (2025 draft eligible), who got it back to Sumpf in the left face-off circle, and his shot beat goalie Vladimir Nikitin (Ottawa Senators) to the short side, between his blocker and the post.
Sumpf also had two assists, and Tropmann, Germany’s captain, also scored a goal. Maxim Schafer (2025 draft eligible) scored two goals, and Linus Vieillard (2025 draft eligible) made 28 saves.
“It’s really big for the whole country,” Sumpf said of staying in the main draw for the WJC. “It’s always big to play in the World Juniors, we didn’t want to get relegated again with our group. At the [World Under-18 Championship level] we got relegated with our [2005-born players]. We didn’t want to do that and we did everything to stay up in the top group and that’s what we did.”
Artur Gross (2025 draft eligible) had a goal and an assist for Kazakhstan, and Asanali Ruslanuly (2025 draft eligible) and Nikita Sitnikov (2025 draft eligible) scored. Nikitin made 18 saves.
Kazakhstan led the game 3-1 when Gross scored at 2:02 of the second period, but Germany scored power-play goals 21 seconds apart to tie it.
With a 5-on-3 advantage, Schafer got to the front of the net and tipped a shot by Sumpf between Nikitin’s pads at 3:58. Then with Germany on a 5-on-4 power play, Tropmann scored on a wrist shot from the point at 4:19.
“It was a shock to be down like that but we were lucky when we got the 5-on-3,” Sumpf said. “Our power play is really good, so we knew we could come back.”
Kazakhstan, which was playing at the top level of the World Juniors for the first time since 2020, will play in the 2026 WJC Division I Group A tournament.
“I think in every game we could have played better,” Kazakhstan forward Alexander Kim (2025 draft eligible) said. “We had some good moments against Slovakia, when we tied the game and went to overtime [5-4 loss Monday], but we still have a lot of work to do. We have to learn from our mistakes. We have to win Division I and come back and stay here.”