World Juniors Today: What’s at stake in the final preliminary round games?

We’ve reached the final day of the 2025 World Juniors’ preliminary round.

With four games on tap, you’ll know the quarterfinal matchups for later this week by the time you’re about to celebrate the new year.

Today’s schedule

• Kazakhstan vs. Switzerland, noon ET/9 a.m. PT
• Finland vs. Latvia, 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT
• Sweden vs. Czechia, 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT
• Canada vs. United States, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT

NYE rivalry heats up

New Year’s Eve marks the return of a World Juniors tradition as Canada and the United States face off on Dec. 31 for the first time since 2016.

“We don’t like those guys over there,” Canada captain Brayden Yager told TSN’s Mark Masters. “Growing up watching, it’s always U.S.-Canada. We want to make our country proud.”

“We don’t like them, they don’t like us. Obviously, a lot of animosity,” said Canadian defenseman Caden Price. “It’s going to be a good battle.”

Both teams have stumbled in the preliminary round. Canada was upset 3-2 by Latvia in a shootout while the U.S. suffered a surprising 4-2 loss to Finland. Both teams enter the matchup with 2-0-0-1 records and seven points in the battle for the top spot in Group A.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” USA defenseman Cole Hutson said. “You win that game you get to rub it in a little bit.”

“It’s going to be cool, especially being in Canada, the world is against us,” USA captain Ryan Leonard said.

Canada has defeated the United States eight times on NYE but the U.S. beat Canada 3-1 in 2016.

What’s at stake?

The quarterfinal seeding is yet to be determined as well as the team that will join Germany in the relegation game. The quarterfinal matchups are crossover style. The winner of Group A will play the fourth seed of Group B, the winner of Group B will play the fourth seed of Group A and so forth.

Let’s begin with Canada versus the United States. The winner of that game will be Group A’s top seed. The loser of that game, depending on the nature of the loss and the result of Finland versus Latvia, could finish either second or third in the group. Canada will finish no lower than second if their game against the United States goes to overtime or shootout or if Finland and Latvia go to overtime or shootout. The United States will finish second if they lose against Canada and Latvia defeats Finland. But they’d finish third if they lost against Canada and Finland won in regulation.

Speaking of Finland and Latvia, there are stakes for them as well. Both teams are through to the knockout round. If Finland wins, they’ll finish no lower than third in the group. If the Canada-United States game ends in regulation and Finland wins in regulation, then they’d finish second. Finland would also win the second seed if they won in regulation over Latvia and the United States lost in any fashion against Canada. If Latvia wins over Finland, they’ll finish no lower than third in the group and Finland would finish fourth under any circumstance. If Latvia wins in regulation and the United States loses in regulation, Latvia will finish third behind the United States. If Latvia wins in regulation and Canada loses in regulation, Latvia would claim the second seed in Group A and leapfrog Canada through the head-to-head tie-breaker.

Let’s go through Group B now. There’s another big matchup featuring Sweden and Czechia. The winner will earn the top seed in Group B and the loser will finish as the second seed. Slovakia is locked in as the group’s third seed. That leaves Switzerland and Kazakhstan. The winner of that game advances as Group B’s fourth seed. The loser will meet Germany in the relegation game on Jan. 2. The winner of that game will play in the 2026 World Juniors while the loser drops down to the IIHF World Junior Championship Division I next year.

Required reading

• Meet Maple Leafs prospect Miroslav Holinka, the quiet player with a loud game for Czechia at World Juniors
• How new Detroit Red Wings prospect Jesse Kiiskinen has broken out with Team Finland, HPK

(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)