On Sunday evening, the Czechs and Swedes met for the bronze medal match of the World Junior Championship (WJC), each trying to salvage their tournament after rough semifinal losses. Eventually, it was the Czechs who came out victorious to secure bronze.
Less than four minutes in, St. Louis Blues prospect Jakub Stancl made the most of their power play opportunity, ripping a one-timer off the crossbar and in to give the Czechs a 1-0 lead. It was his seventh goal of the WJC, giving him outright possession of the tournament lead in goals. But ~10 minutes later, the Swedes got a power play of their own, and Nashville Predators prospect David Edstrom chipped a loose puck home to tie it.
The second period started gridlocked at one and stayed that way until about halfway through, when Seattle Kraken prospect Eduard Sale backhanded one past Marcus Gidlof to give the Czechs a 2-1 lead. Once again, the Swedes had an answer as Edstrom potted his second with a slick redirection past Michael Hrabal.
The teams started the third tied up. You could sense some timidness from each side, as chances were kept down knowing that one mistake could lead to a failure to medal. Then Sweden started to gain some momentum, but regulation time ran out.
After 10 minutes of a pretty uneventful 3v3 overtime, no goal was scored, so it went to a shootout. But it wasn’t just any shootout…it was a 14-round (!!) thriller that finally ended with Sale sealing it for the Czechs.
14 rounds later… CZECHIA WINS IN THE SHOOTOUT!#SWECZE #WorldJuniors #IIHF @czehockey 🇨🇿🥉 pic.twitter.com/vZuGwrhd88
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) January 5, 2025
The Czechs won the bronze medal, salvaging a pretty successful tournament. On the other hand, the Swedes went home with nothing, continuing a decade-plus-long trend of struggling in the medal rounds.
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