Friday is the final day of the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship, which is being held at Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden. The United States and Sweden will play for the gold medal at 1:30 p.m. ET (NHLN, TSN).
Czechia 8, Finland 5: Tomas Hamara (Ottawa Senators) scored at 18:19 of the third period and Czechia rallied against Finland in the bronze-medal game at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship at Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden on Friday.
Ondrej Becher (2024 draft eligible) had a hat trick and two assists for Czechia, which scored six straight goals after trailing 5-2 late in the second period.
Jiri Kulich (Buffalo Sabres) had two goals and two assists for Czechia, which lost 5-2 to Sweden in the semifinals Thursday. Hamara also had two assists, Jakub Stancl (St. Louis Blues) had a goal and an assist, and Matyas Melovsky (2024 draft eligible) had three assists.
Jakub Vondras (Carolina Hurricanes) made 17 saves on 20 shots after replacing Michael Hrabal (Arizona Coyotes), who allowed two goals on three shots and was replaced 7:43 into the first period.
Becher started the turnaround when he scored a short-handed goal at 19:05 of the second period to make it 5-3.
“It was really good for us that we scored that goal,” Hamara said. “It’s better to go to the third period just two goals [down] rather than three.”
Kulich’s second power-play goal of the game made it 5-4 at 4:41 of the third, and Becher scored on the rebound of a Kulich shot to tie the game 5-5 at 18:04.
Hamara scored the winner on a shot from the left point after a face-off win on the left side of the Finland zone.
“We had a face-off play that didn’t work out,” Hamara said. “Jiri just passed it to me and the only thing I saw was net so I just tried to shoot it there and it went through.”
Dominik Rymon (18:52) and Becher (18:54) added empty-net goals two seconds apart for Czechia to set a tournament record for fastest two goals.
Czechia, which won the silver medal at the 2023 WJC, has finished in the top three at the WJC in consecutive years for the first time since it won consecutive tournaments in 2000 and 2001.
Lenni Hameenaho (New Jersey Devils) scored two goals for Finland, which lost 3-2 to the United States in the semifinals Thursday. Jani Nyman (Seattle Kraken) had a goal and an assist, and Konsta Helenius (2024 draft eligible) and Rasmus Kumpulainen (Minnesota Wild) also scored.
Niklas Kokko (Seattle Kraken) made 23 saves.
Finland finished in fourth after a fifth-place finish at the 2023 WJC.
Gold medal game
Sweden vs. United States (1:30 p.m. ET)
This one is going to be personal for Rutger McGroarty (Winnipeg Jets) and a few of his teammates when the United States plays Sweden in the gold medal game at Scandinavium.
The U.S. captain, along with forwards Cutter Gauthier (Philadelphia Flyers), Isaac Howard (Tampa Bay Lightning), Jimmy Snuggerud (St. Louis Blues), Frank Nazar III (Chicago Blackhawks) and Gavin Brindley (Columbus Blue Jackets), and defensemen Lane Hutson (Montreal Canadiens), Ryan Chesley (Washington Capitals) and Seamus Casey (New Jersey Devils) were each part of the U.S. team that outshot (52-15) but lost to Sweden (6-4) at the 2022 IIHF World Under-18 Championship in Germany.
“I feel like we definitely have U-18 Worlds on our mind,” McGroarty said. “I feel like … I mean, I’m going to say it: We don’t like those guys and they don’t like us, so it’s going to get real personal. It’s going to get emotional, but we have to stay even-keel.”
Gauthier said, “I remember that (loss) like it was yesterday. Those guys stripped the gold medal from our necks, and we’re not happy at all. We still have that sour taste in our mouths and we’re going to be ready to go. We’re excited to play them.”
The United States is 16-2-1-16 with two ties in 37 games against Sweden at World Juniors, including an 8-7 overtime win against Sweden in the bronze medal game at the 2023 WJC.
“I’m sure it’ll be fun for you guys to watch,” McGroarty said. “It’ll be fun to play in. Anytime you play for a gold medal, whether it’s U-18 Worlds, World Juniors, Olympics, you want that. I know the guys really want it, and we’ll come to play.”
The U.S. has outscored the opposition 39-13 in six straight wins and seeks a sixth gold medal and first since 2021. It has been led offensively by Gauthier (12 points; 10 assists), Brindley (nine points; six goals), Howard (seven points; five goals) and Snuggerud (seven points; five goals). Hutson has six assists and leads his country in average ice time (23:24).
Trey Augustine (Detroit Red Wings) is expected to start after making 19 saves in a 3-2 win against Finland in the semifinals Thursday. Augustine has won all three tournament starts with a 1.67 goals-against average and .940 save percentage.
Sweden will play its 14th gold-medal game at the World Juniors. It won the championship in 1981 and 2012. It has hosted the tournament six previous times and medaled in three of those events, taking home the silver twice (1993, 2014) and bronze once (1979).
It has outscored the opposition 25-8 in six tournament games, including a 5-4 shootout loss to Finland in the preliminary round.
Sweden has thrived defensively behind the play of Axel Sandin Pellikka (Red Wings; five points, two goals, 20:38 average ice time), Elias Pettersson (Vancouver Canucks; 20:29), Theo Lindstein (Blues; eight points, six assists, 19:50), Tom Willander (Canucks; 19:56) and Mattias Havelid (San Jose Sharks; five points, 17:13).
Offensively, Jonathan Lekkerimaki (Canucks; nine points, six goals) has a point in all six tournament games and enters with a three-game goal streak. Noah Ostlund (Buffalo Sabres; nine points, six assists), Felix Unger Sorum (Carolina Hurricanes; six points, five assists) and Otto Stenberg (Blues; eight points, four goals) have also contributed.
Sweden enters with the top-ranked power play (45 percent; 9-for-20); the U.S. owns the second-best penalty kill (85.7 percent; 12-for-14) in the tournament.
Expected starting Sweden goalie Hugo Havelid (2024 NHL Draft eligible), who made 47 saves in the gold medal game against the U.S. at the 2022 U-18 Worlds, has four wins with a 0.98 GAA, .952 save percentage and two shutouts in four games.
“Hugo’s a good goalie and we’re looking forward to playing him … it’ll be a lot of fun,” McGroarty said.
