{"id":121457,"date":"2025-01-05T03:55:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T03:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-junior-championship-roundup-finland-tops-sweden-in-ot-to-reach-final-nhl-com\/"},"modified":"2025-01-05T03:55:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T03:55:45","slug":"world-junior-championship-roundup-finland-tops-sweden-in-ot-to-reach-final-nhl-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-junior-championship-roundup-finland-tops-sweden-in-ot-to-reach-final-nhl-com\/","title":{"rendered":"World Junior Championship roundup: Finland tops Sweden in OT to reach final – NHL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defending champion advances behind 26 saves from Red Wings prospect Augustine
©<\/span> Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images
Saturday is the 10th 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.<\/em>
United States 4, Czechia 1 —<\/strong> Trey Augustine<\/a> (Detroit Red Wings) made 26 saves for the United States, which advanced to the gold medal game of the World Juniors for the second straight year.
The U.S. will seek a seventh tournament championship and a chance at winning back-to-back titles for the first time when it plays Finland in the gold medal game at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN).
The United States is 15-3-1-8 with one tie against Czechia in 28 matches in the tournament. The U.S. has a streak of 14 straight games at World Juniors without losing in regulation; the last regulation loss was the semifinal round of the 2023 WJC.
Augustine became the career leader in wins at World Juniors (11 wins), passing Jack Campbell<\/a> (10 wins, 2010-12).
Ryan Leonard<\/a> (Washington Capitals) and Gabe Perreault<\/a> (New York Rangers) each had a goal and an assist for the Americans.
Michael Hrabal<\/a> (Utah Hockey Club) made 21 saves for Czechia, which will play Sweden in the bronze medal game at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN).
Perreault gave the United States a 1-0 lead at 3:14 of the first period. Leonard picked up a puck along the right wing boards, skated by a defender before backhanding a pass through another defender from the right circle to Perreault in the slot for the one-touch goal.
Jakub Stancl<\/a> (St. Louis Blues) tied the game 1-1 when he stole a clearing attempt from U.S. defenseman Logan Hensler (2025 NHL Draft eligible) at the left point, skated into the left circle and ripped a shot into the far top corner at 9:28 of the first.
Hrabal made eight saves in the first, including a big right pad stop against Leonard on a one-touch shot from the slot at 18:24 of the first.
Cole Eiserman<\/a> (New York Islanders) gave the Americans a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal on a one-timer from the high slot after a pass from Trevor Connelly<\/a> (Vegas Golden Knights) from the left circle at 13:41 of the second period.
Augustine’s best save came at 12:21 of the third period when he stretched out his right pad to deny Adam Jecho<\/a> (St. Louis Blues) at the left post.
Leonard scored from the slot off a lead pass from Perreault at 15:33 of the third period for a 3-1 lead, and Oliver Moore scored an empty-net goal at 18:53 for the 4-1 final.
The United States has medaled in seven of the last nine World Juniors, the best stretch in the country’s history.
Finland 4, Sweden 3 (OT) —<\/strong> Benjamin Rautiainen (2025 draft eligible) scored a power-play goal at 9:22 of overtime and Finland advanced to the gold-medal game of the World Juniors for the first time since 2022.
Finland will play the winner of the second semifinal, between the United States and Czechia, in the championship game at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN).
Rautiainen was stationed along the goal line on the right side of the Sweden zone, and his shot along the ice went under the pads of goalie Melker Thelin<\/a> (Utah Hockey Club).
“I just saw that the goalie is standing so I try to shoot to the five-hole as hard as I can,” Rautiainen said.
Emil Hemming<\/a> (Dallas Stars) had a goal and an assist for Finland, and Jesse Kiiskinen<\/a> (Detroit Red Wings) and Arttu Alasiurua (2025 draft eligible) also scored. Konsta Helenius<\/a> (Buffalo Sabres) had four assists and Petteri Rimpinen (2025 draft eligible) made 43 saves.
“It’s an unreal feeling,” Finland defenseman Aron Kiviharju<\/a> (Minnesota Wild) said. “Can’t really describe the feelings in any words. We did a [heck] of job there to get the win tonight. It wasn’t easy. I think we played really well for the first two periods but in the third we were just trying to survive.”
Otto Stenberg<\/a> (St. Louis Blues) scored two goals for Sweden, and Wilhelm Hallquisth (2025 draft eligible) also scored. Thelin made 31 saves.
Sweden will play the losing team from the second semifinal in the bronze-medal game Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN).
“I told the players right after the game, ‘Right now, for two hours, you can be disappointed, but then we need to have a meeting at the hotel and regroup,'” Sweden coach Magnus Havelid said. “It was a bit disappointing, but we will play in the bronze-medal game tomorrow, and that’s a good feeling. So we need to come together tonight and regroup.”
Stenberg made it 1-0 at 1:22 of the second period. He lifted the stick of Finland defenseman Emil Pieniniemi<\/a> (Pittsburgh Penguins) at center ice and took off on a 2-on-1 with Victor Eklund (2025 draft eligible). Stenberg kept the puck and scored from the left side.
Hemming tied it 1-1 at 4:32. As a Finland power play was ending, Hemming passed to Helenius below the goal line, skated to the net, and scored off the return pass.
Kiiskinen scored a power-play goal 13:28 to put Finland ahead 2-1, tapping in a backdoor pass by Topias Hynninen (2025 draft eligible).
Sweden allowed a tournament-high eight power-play goals.
Stenberg tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 18:07, when his one-timer from the right face-off circle deflected off the glove of Finland defenseman Veeti Vaisanen<\/a> (Utah Hockey Club) and past Rimpinen.
Finland went ahead 3-2 when Arttu Alasiurua scored on a net drive at 19:39.
Hallquisth tied it 3-3 at 11:32 of the third period when his point shot trickled between Rimpinen’s right arm and body.
Sweden got a power play during overtime when Jessi Nurmi<\/a> (New York Islanders) was called for high-sticking at 2:26. But Rimpinen, who has earned the nickname “Showtime,” made three saves.
“Once again, Mr. Showtime was doing his job to help us win this type of game,” Kiviharju said. “We showed our resilience and kept going and waited for our opportunity.”
NHL.com deputy managing editor Adam Kimelman, NHL.com senior draft writer Mike G. Morreale and NHL.com independent correspondent Callum Fraser contributed to this report<\/em><\/p>\n

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Defending champion advances behind 26 saves from Red Wings prospect Augustine © Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images Saturday is the 10th 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.United States 4, Czechia 1 — Trey Augustine (Detroit Red Wings) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-121457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}