World Juniors Today: Previewing every 2025 quarterfinals matchup

We’ve reached the knockout stage of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ottawa.

Eight teams still have a chance at ending the tournament with a gold medal. The other two teams will square off for the right to remain in the World Juniors next year.

Today, we’re going to break down all of Thursday’s games. The tournament doesn’t use a bracket format and the winners of the quarterfinal matchups will be reseeded for the semifinals.

Today’s schedule

• Kazakhstan vs. Germany, 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT
• Latvia vs. Sweden, 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT
• Switzerland vs. United States, 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT
• Slovakia vs. Finland 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT
• Canada vs. Czechia, 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT

(3A) Canada vs. Czechia (2B)

It’s a rematch of the 2023 World Juniors gold-medal game which saw Canada edge Czechia with an overtime winner from Dylan Guenther in Halifax. Two years later, they meet in the quarters.

Canada’s performances at these World Juniors have drawn the most attention, and criticism, from fans and pundits. After a tournament-opening win against Finland, Canada was upset by Latvia and then dropped a New Year’s Eve clash against the United States. In that game, the Canadians allowed three power-play goals after being penalized 11 times. Canadian head coach Dave Cameron said only his players could rectify that problem and it’s not something he could “address.”

“They know that penalties are penalties,” Cameron said. “You talk all you want in the short term. They have to decide. Simple as that.”

Canada enters the quarterfinals with 10 goals scored over four games. That ties them with Finland and Switzerland. Only Latvia, Germany and Kazakhstan have scored fewer goals.

If Canada takes pride in being tight defensively, Czechia should prove to be a significant test. 

Meanwhile, Czechia entered the final day of preliminary play level with Sweden at nine points. Both teams were undefeated entering their preliminary-round showdown. Despite losing that game against Sweden, Czechia has scored the most goals of any team at this year’s World Juniors. Three Czechs hold a share of third place in scoring: forwards Vojtech Hradec, Jakub Stancl and Eduard Sale, each with seven points.

Those three are also tied for the goal-scoring lead (4) with Sweden’s Axel Sandin-Pelikka and Slovakia’s Dalibor Dvorsky. The Czechs are coming off a silver medal in 2023 and a bronze medal in 2022. A gold medal would be their first since 2001 when they defeated Finland. 

USA’s Cole Eiserman, Zeev Buium and Ryan Leonard celebrate in win over Canada. (Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press via AP)

(4B) Switzerland vs. United States (1A)

USA is hellbent on defending gold.

Trey Augustine is coming off his best game yet, backstopping USA to a 4-1 takedown of the Canadians with 38 saves on New Year’s Eve. The top line of Gabe Perreault, James Hagen and Ryan Leonard got rolling in a 10-4 win over Germany and has continued to look stellar, as has tournament points leader Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman. The U.S. convincingly powered through Germany, Latvia and Canada with a talented roster from top to bottom, and with an overtime drop to Finland the only blip.

GO DEEPER

USA beats Canada at World Juniors on New Year’s Eve

Switzerland doesn’t have anywhere near the offensive star power. After dropping the opening game to Czechia, it managed to avoid the relegation game with a 3-1 win over Kazakhstan. The Swiss lost a close one to Slovakia 2-1 and scored four power-play goals in a 7-5 loss to Sweden.

(3B) Slovakia vs. Finland (2A)

This one could be closer. The Finns have strong goaltending in Petteri Rimpinen, who has posted a .947 save percentage and 1.75 goals-against average, second only to Canada’s Carter George. They were blanked 4-0 by Canada to open the tournament, their only regulation loss, but later edged USA in overtime, handing the Americans their lone loss. Finland finished second in Group A.

Slovakia finished third in Group B, led by Dalibor Dvorsky (tied for the tournament lead with four goals), Juraj Pekarcik and Maxim Strbak, and played well against their stronger opponents in losses to Sweden and Czechia.

(4A) Latvia vs. Sweden (1B)

Sweden whizzed past the preliminary round, sweeping Group B and entering the quarterfinals as the only undefeated team. Captain Axel Sandin Pellikka and Tom Willander lead a powerful Swedish back end, with offensive weapons Anton Wahlberg and Otto Stenberg up front, among others. Sandin Pellikka, named the top defenseman at the 2024 World Juniors, leads the tournament with eight points. The Swedish power play is a tournament-leading 7-for-20.

Sweden fell 6-2 to USA last year on home ice in Gothenburg, winning silver.

“I think this is a little receipt of the work we’ve put in, and respect for our team winning all four games here,” Sandin Pellikka said of Sweden sweeping group play. “And we want to continue on this train that has started to roll and looking forward for the playoffs.”

But … can you really count Latvia out completely? Linards Feldbergs backstopped the team to a stunning upset over Canada with an MVP-worthy 55-save performance and leads the tournament with 163 saves. Washington Capitals prospect Eriks Mateiko has come up big with three goals. The team pulled off a gutsy overtime win over Germany to avoid the relegation game. They’ve emerged as a fan favorite and one of the stories of the tournament.

“We knew that we can do good things, big things. And we knew like as a team that we can do that,” Feldbergs said. “So, yeah, right now we just have to concentrate on that.”

Relegation game: Germany (5A) vs. Kazakhstan (5B)

The winner will remain in next year’s World Juniors while the losing team will be relegated to the IIHF World U20 Championship Division I. Kazakhstan won it last year to be promoted. The loser will be replaced by this year’s Division I winner, Denmark.

Kazakhstan has had some close calls at the tournament despite not winning a game. After blowout losses to Sweden and Czechia, Kazakhstan rallied from two goals down to force overtime against Slovakia in their third game. An overtime loss denied them from creating one of the biggest shocks of the tournament so far. They were still alive for the quarterfinals until they lost to Switzerland in their final preliminary game.

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Meet Kazakhstan’s Vladimir Nikitin, its only NHL prospect at the World Juniors

The Germans were off to a slow start after losing to the United States 10-4 in their first game. Their next two games saw them limit their deficits, losing 3-1 to Finland and 3-0 to Canada. They picked up their first point of the tournament when they went to overtime against Latvia. But an overtime goal from Latvian hero Mateiko sank them into the relegation game. Germany hasn’t been in Division I since 2019 when they won to gain promotion.

(Photo of Canada’s Cole Beaudoin, Luca Pinelli and Carter George: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)