On the final day of group play at the 2026 World Junior Championship (WJC), Czechia and Latvia squared off in a big matchup to determine the seeding in Group A heading into the quarterfinals. A tightly contested game ended with Czechia pulling off a 4-2 win.
Game Recap
Latvia got on the scoreboard early in the opening 20 minutes of play, thanks to getting a power play five minutes into the game. The Latvians’ power play showed good patience and puck movement, ending with Kristers Ansons taking a backdoor pass from the point by Bruno Osmanis and burying it past Czechia goaltender Matyas Mařík. Czechia got on the board at the halfway point of the period when Tomáš Galvas found Tomáš Poletín out front of the net. Poletín initially whiffed on the shot attempt, but stuck with it and finished on the second try to even things up at one aside.
The Czechs added their own power play goal less than two minutes later, with Adam Jiříček (St. Louis Blues) taking a cross-ice pass from Václav Nestrašil (Chicago Blackhawks) and one-timing it off of Latvian netminder, Nils Maurins’ skate and into the net shortside to give his team a 2-1 lead that they took into the locker room after the first period.
Czechia got another bounce that went their way in the second period, as Max Pšenička threw a puck towards Maurins that deflected off a Latvian defenseman and found its way past Maurins to give the Czechs a 3-1 lead early on in the second. The rest of the period was tightly contested, with Maurins staying busy. Through 40 minutes of play, the shots ended 23-7 in Czechia’s favor.
Related: Guide to the 2026 World Junior Championship
Latvia got within one less than ten minutes into the third period, scoring their second power play goal off the stick of Markuss Sieradzkis at the bottom of the circle, beating Mařík shortside. The Latvians had plenty of chances throughout the period to tie the game, but Czechia stood tall and Nestrašil added an empty net goal to give his team a 4-2 victory.
With the loss, Latvia will be slotted in as the fourth seed in Group B, and Czechia awaits the result of the matchup between Canada and Finland to see where they will be seeded.
