Early afternoon Thursday in Ottawa, Kazakhstan and Germany met in the relegation game of the 2025 World Junior Championship (WJC). With Ottawa Senators goalie prospect Vladimir Nikitin in Kazakhstan’s net, plus the fact the Kazakhs had won just one WJC game in 6,212 days, the crowd was very pro-Kazakhstan. Unfortunately for the majority, they didn’t get their wish as Germany captured a 4-3 victory.
Kazakhstan struck early as Assanali Ruslanuly converted on an odd-man rush. But just eight seconds later, a defensive breakdown led to Maxim Schafer evening it up for Germany. The score stood there for most of the period until Kazakh forward Nikita Sitnikov banked one off Linus Vieillard’s skate to go up 2-1.
Just over two minutes into the second, Artur Gross doubled Kazakhstan’s lead with a snipe over Vieillard’s left shoulder. But the Kazakhs got into penalty trouble, giving Germany a five-on-three advantage and Schafer and Edwin Tropmann both scored to tie the game.
The culbs entered the third period gridlocked at three, until the Kazakhs took another penalty and Julius Sumpf scored on the ensuing power play, giving Germany a 4-3 lead. The score remained there for the rest of the period.
Germany will remain at the top division of the 2026 WJC, while Kazakhstan will be demoted to the Division IA tournament and cannot return until 2027 at the earliest.
Sign up for our NHL Prospects & Draft Substack newsletter
