FINNS WIN, LATVIA 4TH IIHF 2025 World Junior Championship

Finland finished the preliminary round with a 3-0 win over Latvia this afternoon in Ottawa. The result keeps Latvia in fourth place in Group A. They will now face the winner of the Czechia-Sweden game tonight in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

For Finland, the outcome is a bit more complicated for the next several hours. If either Canada or United Staes wins their game outright, Finland will finish in second and play Slovakia in the quarters. If Canada wins in overtime or a shootout, the Finns again finish in second. But if the Americans win in extra time, Finland will finish third and play the loser of Czechia-Sweden.

Finland has now won all eight games between the teams in World Juniors history.

Latvia came out and played the way they have been all tournament, minimizing any risky play and defending well, relying on goalie Linards Feldbergs to keep the game close. But as in the game against the U.S., Latvia allowed the only goal of the period. Konsta Helenius did some great work to bring the puck out of the corner, then made a nice little pass to Benjamin Rautiainen in front. He outwaited Feldbergs before lifting the puck in the empty net with the goalie down and out.

Latvia had only one decent scoring chance, that on a power play. Markuss Sieradzkis put the puck in front onto the stick of Eriks Mateiko, but Petteri Rimpinen was there to make the good save.

The second was a repeat of the first except that, despite getting 12 shots, the Latvians didn’t have a particularly great scoring opportunity. The Finns, however, doubled their lead at 7:06 thanks to a screen shot from the point from Jesse Kiiskinen that went over the shoulder of Feldbergs.

Suomi added to their tally early in the third on another big shot during a power play. This was teed up by a soft pass from Aron Kiviharju for Kasper Halttunen, who blasted the puck past the blocker of Feldbergs to make it 3-0.

NOTE: Latvian defender #10 Harijs Cjunskis had blood on his jersey at the end of the first period and had to change to #4 for the rest of the game.