Canada Sweden World Juniors New Year’s Eve
Canada wraps up round robin play at the World Junior Hockey Championship on Saturday night with a New Year’s game against Sweden.
You can watch the action LIVE from Scotiabank Arena in Halifax Saturday at 6:30pm ET/3:30pm PT on TSN 1/4/5 and stream on TSN.ca or the TSN app.
Team Canada has had an up-and-down tournament so far in Halifax.
They dropped their opener to the Czech Republic, 5-2, on Boxing Day before blowing out Germany and Austria in their next two games, outscoring the two nations by a combined score of 22-2.
Another positive for Canada has been forward Connor Bedard, who has proven why he should be taken overall in the upcoming NHL draft this summer.
You can watch every match of the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship LIVE on TSN, TSN.ca and the TSN App.
New Year’s Eve at World Juniors
11:00 a.m. ET/8:00 a.m. PT – Switzerland vs. Slovakia (TSN 1/4/5, TSN.ca, TSN App)
1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT – Czech Republic vs. Germany (TSN 1/4/5, TSN.ca, TSN App)
4:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT – USA vs. Finland (TSN 1/4, TSN.ca, TSN App)
6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT – Canada vs. Sweden (TSN 1/4/5, TSN.ca, TSN App)
The 17-year-old native of North Vancouver, BC scored twice in Thursday’s win against the Austrians to tie Jordan Eberle’s all-time Canadian World Junior mark of 14 goals and is now just four points behind Eric Lindro’s all-time scoring record of 27. He also had a hat trick and four assists in a blowout win over Germany on Wednesday, matching the Canadian single-game scoring record also held by Dave Andreychuk (1983), Brenden Morrow (1999), Mike Cammalleri (2002) and Gabriel Bourque (2010).
“His scoring ability is (among) the best I’ve ever seen,” teammate Shane Wright said. “He’s always creative with how he shoots the puck and where he can release it. Really impressive.”
The Regina Pats center leads the tournament in scoring with six goals and eight assists, seven more than the next best offensive producer in teammate Logan Stankoven.
“I’m another player on the team,” Bedard said. “We have so many guys who are special players. I’m just here as one of the guys.”
Canada will likely need more than just Bedard to beat the Swedes on Saturday night. Sweden has won all three of its matches at the World Juniors, including a tight 1-0 win over Germany and a 3-2 overtime win over the Czech Republic.
Sweden holds the top spot in Group A with eight points, followed by the Czech Republic with seven and Canada with six. Germany and Austria are both pointless heading into Friday’s action. Finland leads Group B with seven points, followed by the USA (six), Switzerland (four), Slovakia (three) and Latvia (one). The top four teams in each group advance to the quarter-final round.
Defenseman Ludvig Jansson, a fourth-round pick of the Florida Panthers in 2022, leads the way for Sweden with five points while goaltender Carl Lindbolm has allowed just two goals on 76 shots.
The Canadians have used both of their goaltenders in Halifax. Ben Gaudreau got the start on Boxing Day against the Czech Republic before being withdrawn in favor of Thomas Milic. Milic got the start against Germany as Gaudreau was back between the pipes on Thursday and recorded a shutout against Austria.
Forward Adam Fantilli says the recent offensive outbursts can only give Canada confidence heading into the game with Sweden.
“We’ve been playing the right way, all three zones, so I think everyone will have that kind of confidence against Sweden,” he told TSN.
Canada is the defending world junior champion, and this summer Finland had overtime in the gold medal game after the 2022 tournament was canceled last Christmas due to covid-19. Sweden has a total of 20 medals at the World Juniors, including two golds, at the latest in 2012.