Sweden managed to hold off Latvia to reach the semi-finals of the World Junior Hockey Championship in Ottawa on Thursday.
After taking a seemingly comfortable lead of three goals, the Swedes saw the Latvians eat into this priority at the end of the second period.
In the end, Sweden won 3-2.
Zeb Forsfjall, Anton Wahlberg and David Edstrom gave Sweden a three-goal lead, but Eriks Mateiko responded with two goals.
Montreal Canadiens prospect Rasmus Bergqvist had an assist in the Swedish victory. The defenseman was selected in the seventh round of the 2024 draft.
Sweden dominated 32-11 on penalties.
Germans keep their place among the elite
Germany retained their place for the 2026 World Cup with a 4-3 victory over Kazakhstan in the relegation match.
Maxim Schafer scored twice for Germany, which is making its seventh consecutive appearance at the World Juniors. Last year, Germany beat Norway 5-4 in overtime in the relegation match.
Kazakhstan opened the scoring in the first period, but Germany tied it at 1-1 eight seconds later. After taking a 3-1 lead in the second period, a five-on-three power play allowed Germany to tie the game with two goals in 21 seconds.
Julius Sumpf scored the game-winner for Germany less than five minutes into the third period.
Kazakhstan had an admirable performance at the tournament after starting their time in Ottawa with an 8-1 loss to Sweden in their first World Junior match since 2020 and a 14-2 loss to Czechia a day later. late. The team bounced back with a 5-4 overtime loss to Slovakia and missed a spot in the quarterfinals with a 3-1 loss to Switzerland on Tuesday.
