After a full day of games on Day 4 of the 2025 World Junior Championship, which saw Group A become quite an interesting situation with Finland beating the United States in overtime, Day 5 will only have two games being played.
Kazakhstan vs. Slovakia (1 p.m.)
Kazakhstan: Final Roster
Slovakia: Final Roster
The first game of the day is between two teams that are going to be battling for the third and fourth spots in Group B. Kazakhstan is winless in the tournament to this point but has a chance of making it to the knockout round, given that the top-four teams from each group make it and that Switzerland is also winless. They face an uphill battle against a Slovakia team led by their goaltending to this point. Samuel Urban and Alan Lendak have seen time between the pipes for the Slovaks and have done an admirable job. Slovakia’s biggest issue is not being able to get anything offensively. They have only scored six goals in three games and need more from players like Dalibor Dvorsky (St. Louis Blues) and Miroslav Satan (Washington Capitals).
Even with Slovakia’s lack of offensive output, they still have too much talent on their roster for Kazakhstan to overcome. Slovakia should be able to pull off a victory while also getting some of their players going offensively and gaining momentum after losing to Czechia on Dec. 29.
Favorite: Slovakia
Players to Watch: Maxim Strbak (Slovakia), Juraj Pekarcik (Slovakia), Vladimir Nikitin (Kazakhstan)
Latvia vs. Germany (3:30 p.m.)
Latvia: Final Roster
Germany: Final Roster
After their big upset of Canada on Dec. 27, Latvia played another hard-fought game against the United States on Dec. 28 but ended up losing 5-1. They will look to cement themselves in the top four of Group A with a win over Germany. The Latvians are another team that has found it difficult to get a lot of offensive output, only tallying four goals through their first three games. On the flip side, they have only allowed seven goals, thanks largely to being a team that has no problem blocking shots, is defensively sound and has had strong goaltending from Linards Feldberg.
Related: Guide to the 2025 World Junior Championship
The Germans come into the game as one of the three winless teams in the tournament, but outside of their 10-4 opening loss to the United States, they have been a tough team to play against. They battled Canada on Dec. 29 and held them to only three goals, and they did the same to Finland on Dec. 27. They are another team like Latvia, who has struggled to get their game going offensively. They have talent on their roster, including David Lewandowski and Julius Sumpf, and they will need them to step up if they want to beat the Latvians.
In the end, the team that can get its offense going will win this game and help itself avoid the relegation round. The Germans will be hard-pressed to do so because of how strongly Feldbergs has played for Latvia.
Favorite: Latvia
Players to Watch: Eriks Mateiko (Latvia), Linards Feldbergs (Latvia), David Lewandowski (Germany), Julius Sumpf (Germany)
Day of Massive Importance
As the tournament progresses towards the knockout round, games become more important. Day 5 is one of the most important for the four teams involved. The Group A standings are set for the top three spots (while not necessarily set in stone with who is where), and the Germany/Latvia game is where the team who wins will get into that fourth spot to get to the knockout round. The loser, on the other hand, will end up playing in the relegation round. The same can be said for the Kazakhstan/Czechia matchup; with a loss, Kazakhstan will find themselves in a must-win game against Switzerland on Dec. 31 to avoid the relegation round. There may only be two games today, but they serve massive importance.
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