The gold medal game in the 2026 World Junior Championship on Monday, Jan. 5, was between Czechia and Sweden. Czechia came into the game on a dominating win over Canada the previous day, while Sweden had taken down Finland. Each team was seeking its first gold in quite some time. The last time Sweden won was in 2012, while Czechia last won in 2001.
The game started out in favor of Sweden, and Czechia had to find a way to fight back. Unfortunately, it took until the final minutes of the third period for them to find their scoring, but by then it was too late. In this article, we’ll look at a few takeaways for Czechia, starting with their energy level.
Czechia Didn’t Have the Same Energy
In their game against Canada, it was pretty clear who played better throughout the game as Czechia skated around Canada. They beat them to pucks, were more physical, and just outplayed Canada for most of the game. Against Sweden, while they had energy, it wasn’t at the same level.
They had some chances to show their skills, and they either missed the net or couldn’t get their shot through. They had speed and didn’t get outskated, but couldn’t quite play up to Sweden’s level, and their lack of shots was a problem as Sweden nearly doubled their shot total as well as the goal total.
“Well definitely, Canada’s a great team and I think we were a bit overhyped against them and that probably bit us at the start of this game but yeah we showed that we can compete and in the last five minutes we kinda shocked everybody, didn’t work out but that’s hockey, just you know get over it, celebrate for a bit it’s still a huge success for our country,” said Václav Nestrašil about the energy they lacked after playing Canada.
Czechia Special Teams Lack
The first goal Sweden scored was while they were shorthanded, and Czechia was on the power play. Although Czechia had the extra player, Sweden found a way to turn the play the other way and go up 1-0. Czechia had a number of chances on the power play to get themselves either on the board first or back in the game, and they couldn’t convert.
Then on their penalty kill, they also struggled as Sweden scored a power play goal to go up 2-0 and put Czechia back on their heels. It seemed like it was more, but Czechia took just two penalties and only killed off one. If their special teams had been stronger, this game could’ve turned out differently for them, especially if they had scored on their first power play of the game in the first period.
Special teams can be a factor in a team winning or losing, and sadly for Czechia, they weren’t able to convert on theirs. Either score on the power play or stop the other team from scoring while on their penalty kill; hopefully, next year, they’ll be able to show solid special teams.
Czechia Should be Proud
Although they didn’t get the gold medal, Czechia should still be proud of their performance both against Sweden, who proved to be the team to beat, and the rest of the tournament. They fell to Canada in the preliminary round but came back to knock them out in the semi-finals. They were able to come home with a silver medal, and although that means they lost, it also means they fell to a very strong Sweden team that went undefeated through the whole tournament.
It was also Czechia’s fourth straight medal in the tournament, and even though it wasn’t gold yet, their team continues to improve. They will have a number of return players for next year, like Adam Benák, and Vojtěch Čihař, so they’ll have an even better shot at gold, and it’ll be interesting to see if they can snag gold.
Related: Guide to the 2026 World Junior Championship
“I mean, I said it a few times, it means that Czech hockey is growing and even though we didn’t have the gold medal today, I think we still made the country proud and we still showed that we’re in here and we’re going to battle for medals every single year,” said Nestrašil about how proud his team was to medal again.
Next year’s tournament will be held in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, from Dec. 26, 2026-Jan. 5, 2027. It’ll be interesting to see if Czechia can claim another medal and make it gold instead of silver.
