World Juniors daily recap: History made

Throughout the World Juniors tournament, we’ll be keeping track of all the action and bringing you all of the results in one place.

Switzerland vs. Slovakia

The first of today\'s matchups came between Switzerland and Slovakia, two teams that took losses in their tournament openers on Thursday and were looking to get themselves back on track. This was a pretty spirited game, and a pretty even one at that -- the Slovaks took the lead in the first period on a goal by David Jencko, and while they were able to hold it for a little while, the Swiss didn\'t let things get too far away from them, and pulled the score back to even in the second period on a goal from Eric Schneller.

Slovakia, despite hitting a bit of a lull through much of the third period, struggling to create much in the way of chances, found some good bursts in the waning minutes. They had one very good chance with just over five minutes remaining, but Swiss goaltender Christian Kirsch came up with a huge save to keep the game tied. Their luck turned just a few moments later though, and an unfortunate turnover by the Swiss right in the slot led to a great chance for Jan Chovan (a name to watch in the 2025 draft), and he put it away to pull the Slovaks into the lead with just 3:18 remaining in regulation. The Swiss gave it their all to try to pull back to even again, putting on a shooting galley with the goalie pulled inside the last minute of play, but the Slovaks were able to hold them off and come away with the win.

Final: Slovakia 2 – Switzerland 1 Next game up (SVK): Dec 29, 5:00 ET vs. Czechia Next game up (SUI): Dec 29, 12:00 ET vs. Sweden

Germany vs. Finland

In a bit of continuity, the second game of the day also featured a pair of teams still hunting for their first win of the tournament, after both losing their openers. The Finns didn\'t have a huge output of chances last night against Canada, and didn\'t see any of them make their way to the back of the net, but today\'s game saw things get moving in the right direction for them. They came out with some real jump, seemingly unhindered by any fatigue, and managed to put in one goal in the first period, and should have had a second, but the Germans were bailed out in a big way on a huge save by defenseman Norwin Panocha on the goal line when the goaltender was down and out.

The Finns were able to extend their lead in the second period, though, on a goal by Arttu Alasiura, and the Germans were hoping that their luck would stick with them a bit longer, and challenged the goal for being offside, but it was upheld in the end (this also marked their second unsuccessful challenge in as many games). No matter, though, because they managed to kill the penalty dealt from that unsuccessful challenge, and mere seconds after being released from serving that penalty for his team, Clemens Sager scored to bring the Germans back within one. This would be the end of their scoring for the game though, and despite a few more looks and a good run at tying the game with the goaltender pulled, the Finns managed to put the game away with the empty net goal.

Final: Finland 3 – Germany 1 Next game up (FIN): Dec 29, 2:30 ET vs. USA Next game up (GER): Dec 29, 7:30 ET vs. Canada

Sweden vs. Kazakhstan

Thursday was more the day of lopsided games than today was, but this matchup between Sweden and Kazakhstan was a pretty notable exception. And this was a tough matchup from the start -- Sweden being one of the perrenial powerhouses of this tournament, and Kazakhstan playing their first game since qualifying for a return to the top group after relegation. Sweden had a door open to come in hot here, and they took it.

It was a five-goal first period for the Swedes, as they came out with some real jump and seemed to be giving their opponents fits. The first four -- from Victor Eklund, David Edstrom, Linus Eriksson, and Felix Nilsson, respectively -- all came within eight minutes of each other, and the fifth was a real back-breaker, tacked on by Anton Wahlberg with just 13 seconds before the first intermission, and a much needed reprieve, arrived.

Things settled in a bit more in the second period, and while Wahlberg did extend Sweden\'s lead even further in that frame, Artur Gross managed to put one away for Kazakhstan to keep them from being stuck with a shutout. So there\'s that.

We won\'t beleaguer this one -- the Swedes added two more goals in the third period to make it a cool eight-goal outing, and putting this game well and truly away. On to the next.

Final: Sweden 8 – Kazakhstan 1 Next game up (SWE): Dec 29, 12:00 ET vs. Switzerland Next game up (KAZ): Dec 28, 1:00 ET vs. Czechia

Latvia vs. Canada

Canada put up a pretty commanding win over Finland in their tournament opener last night, and if the hope was that the home team would be able to ride that momentum and come out and make quick work of doing some damage against this much weaker Latvian team, well, that\'s not quite how things shook out.

Latvia was able to keep things close, indeed, scoreless until early in the second period, when Canada got on the board on a huge shorthanded goal by Jett Luchanko. But this struggle in scoring certainly wasn\'t for lack of trying on Canada\'s part -- in that first period, the Canadians outshot the Latvians 12-9, and then exploded for a 21-4 edge in the second period. But still, only the one goal went for them.

The third period is when things really got interesting. Canada had the chance to go up by two goals on a great chance from Calum Ritchie in the slot, but Linards Feldbergs came up with a huge save (and a reasonably lengthy official review confirmed it was indeed a huge save). And to pile on, Latvia managed to score after this -- from Eriks Mateiko on the power play -- to tie things up in shocking fashion. Canada managed to rally back, and Ritchie got his goal after all to restore Canada\'s lead, but Latvia again found a way to score on the power play to even things up, stealing a point from the home team and forcing overtime.

Overtime was little short of thrilling -- the Canadians had a number of huge chances, but Latvia\'s defenders and goaltender came up big for them time and again, while on the flip side, the Canadians managed to stifle Latvia on a brief power play in overtime. In the end, it took a shootout to settle this one, and it took eight long rounds but they finally did the unthinkable -- Mateiko came up as the hero again, scoring to give Latvia a massive, massive win over Canada, their first in tournament history.

Final: Latvia 3 – Canada 2 Next game up (CAN): Dec 29, 7:30 ET vs. Germany Next game up (LAT): Dec 28, 3:30 ET vs. USA

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