2024 World Juniors daily: Jan. 4

Sweden and the USA booked their spot in the 2024 World Juniors final Thursday.

Day 8 results (Jan. 4, 2024)

Germany 5-4 Norway (OT)
Sweden 5-2 Czechia
USA 4-2 Finland

About today:

Hosts Sweden booked its spot in the final after a 5-2 win over Czechia.

Goals from Baie-Comeau’s Matyas Melovsky and Val-d’Or’s Tomas Cibulka had Czechia level at 2-2 after 40 minutes before the Swedes scored three unanswered goals in the third to secure a spot in the final for the first time since 2018.

That's goals in back-to-back games for Tomas Cibulka! 🇨🇿#WorldJuniors | @ForeursVD pic.twitter.com/3MrqqLo7ZK

— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) January 4, 2024

Jonathan Lekkerimaki, who was the 70th overall pick in the 2022 CHL Import Draft by Vancouver, scored the game-winner for Sweden 5:14 into the third.

After 20 minutes, things looked promising in the second semi-final for Finland after they built a 2-0 lead that included a goal from Oshawa’s Rasmus Kumpulainen (MIN).

An @OHLHockey connection!🤝

Rasmus Kumpulainen gets a piece of Arttu Karki's point shot as 🇫🇮 doubles their lead! #WorldJuniors | @Oshawa_Generals | @OHLHoundPower pic.twitter.com/xWoO4LiL8n

— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) January 4, 2024

But the USA scored three unanswered, that included the game-winner at 6:47 of the third, to remain perfect in the tournament and claim a spot in the final for the first time in three years.

Earlier in the day, Germany secured its spot at the 2025 World Juniors in Ottawa after they edged past Norway 5-4 in the relegation game.

Moncton’s Julius Sumpf had an assist in the victory for Germany, as did Gatineau’s Sander Wold for Norway.

With the defeat, Norway drop down into Division 1 and will be replaced by Kazakhstan in 2025, who were recently promoted.

Day 9 schedule (Jan. 5, 2024):

Czechia vs. Finland — 9am ET / 6am PT
Sweden vs. — 1:30pm ET / 10:30am PT

A look ahead:

Sweden will hope to make it three consecutive years that the World Juniors host has won gold as they look to follow in Canada’s footsteps in 2022 and 2023.

But more importantly, they seek their first World Juniors gold since 2012 and just their third ever victory at the tournament (1981).

The Swedes last reached the final in 2018 when they fell to Canada; in fact, Sweden has suffered significant heartbreak in the World Juniors final as they have had to settle for silver on 11 occasions.

As for the USA, they will look to claim their sixth gold medal and first since 2021. The Americans were also victorious in 2004, 2010, 2013 and 2017 while this will be the eighth time they have played for gold; they were runners-up in 1997 and 2019.

In the bronze medal game, Czechia will seek to medal in back-to-back years for the first time since 2000-01 when they were crowned champions on each occasion.

In 2022, they played in the third-place game but were beaten by Sweden and in program history, have only skated away with bronze once in 2005. In all, Czechia have only medalled four times since 1994.

Finland will seek its eighth World Juniors bronze medal and first since 2021. After they were eliminated in the quarterfinals last year, a win Friday would mean Finland has medalled in three of the last four tournaments that included a silver medal in 2022.

Where to watch: 

The bronze medal game is available on TSN 1 and 4 while the gold medal contest can be seen across all TSN channels.

CHL leaders: