OTTAWA — The penultimate day at the 2025 World Juniors saw USA and Finland advance to Sunday’s gold medal game, setting up a rematch after the Finns beat the Americans in overtime in group play. USA Hockey will look to make history and win their first-ever back-to-back golds. The Finns will have a chance to win their sixth gold medal, which would tie them with the United States for third all-time.
Here are The Athletic’s prospects writers Corey Pronman’s and Scott Wheeler’s semifinal standouts and analysis.
• Finland defeated Sweden 4-3 in overtime. Sabres first-rounder Konsta Helenius had assists on all four Finnish goals. Draft-eligible forward Benjamin Rautiainen scored the overtime winner. Blues prospect Otto Stenberg had two goals for Sweden. Finnish goaltender Petteri Rimpinen made 43 saves.
• USA defeated Czechia 4-1. Islanders first-rounder Cole Eiserman scored the game-winner. Red Wings goalie prospect Trey Augustine stopped 26 of 27 shots for the Americans. Gabe Perreault (NY Rangers) and Ryan Leonard (Washington) each had two points (one goal, one assist apiece).
Eiserman making most of unconventional role
There has always been a lot of talk about the Islanders’ first-rounder. He’s a unique cat with a one-of-one play style and one-shot goal-scoring punch. After starting this year’s tournament on Team USA’s quote-unquote second line, he was moved to the 13th forward role against Canada on New Year’s Eve and has played limited minutes. I’ve actually quite liked what he has brought in that role the last three games though. While he’s playing primarily on the power play, when he has got out there at five-on-five, I’ve felt he’s played with intensity and has done a good job chasing down pucks and applying pressure on the forecheck. He scored a big goal against both Canada on Dec. 31 and Czechia in the semifinal. Credit to him for accepting the role and coming up big in usage (under 10 minutes average for the last three games since the switch) he has never had in his career. He’s going to be a first-line forward for the Americans next year but for now, he’s giving them exactly what they need out of him as the 13th forward. — Scott Wheeler
Sweden can’t score when they needed one
Sweden’s blue line was known as a strength coming into this tournament, but despite having two strong lines of forward, whether there was enough pure skill and offense on this team was always a mild question. They scored in the round-robin, but aside from Felix Unger Sorum and Victor Eklund, there wasn’t a whole lot of dynamic puck play among the forward group. That showed up in the semifinal. They had a ton of pressure on Finland in the second half of the game, getting 11 more shots on goal and many more dangerous looks overall. They just couldn’t beat the Finnish goalie Rimpinen. Other than Otto Stenberg, there wasn’t a true natural finisher in this group; their leading goal scorer was a defenseman, Axel Sandin Pellikka. They were the better team, they just couldn’t find a hero to bury a shot. — Corey Pronman
Finland grinds their way to gold medal game
This Finland team has often looked ordinary in this tournament. They haven’t scored many goals, beating Germany by two goals and Latvia by three goals. On paper, they don’t have many top NHL prospects and seemed like a notable underdog coming into this game. They saved arguably their best performance of the tournament for the semifinal, and that includes the fact they beat the USA in the round-robin. Finland was out-competing Sweden for the first two periods of the game. They were out-skilled, but still kept the game close in chances until they went up by one and started to sit back. They didn’t shorten the bench and trusted all their players in important situations. — Corey Pronman
Helenius arrives for Finland
I expected more out of Helenius at this year’s tournament. Entering the semifinal, he had just three assists through five games. For a returning player with men’s senior team experience who has been a top player in Liiga and a good player in the AHL, the expectation is that they’ll dominate and be one of the top players in the tournament — and certainly for their team. And while Helenius was named one of Finland’s top three players of the tournament (his 19:03 average ice time also leads their forwards) as selected by the team after his four-assist performance in the semi, bringing him to seven assists in six games, he’s not in the mix for the tournament all-star team in my opinion and has been bland at five-on-five at times. His craft on the puck, feel for spacing and timing and vision were all on display on Saturday, though, and it was nice to see him really connecting on his passes and finding guys. His athletic profile isn’t an asset but his brain always has been. — Scott Wheeler
(Photo of Gabe Perreault, James Hagens and Ryan Leonard: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
