Eduard Sale (Seattle Kraken) scored in the 14th round of the shootout and the Czech Republic won the bronze medal at the 2025 World Junior Championship on Sunday at the Canadian Tire Center in Ottawa.
Sale advanced toward Swedish goaltender Marcus Gidlof (New York Islanders) and backhanded the puck under the crossbar.
Sale and Jakub Stancl (St. Louis Blues) scored in the second period for the Czech Republic, which won a WJC medal for the third consecutive year, a first in the country’s history. She got bronze in 2024 and silver the year before.
Michal Hrabal made 32 saves.
David Edstrom (Nashville Predators) scored two goals for Sweden, and Felix Unger Sorum (Carolina Hurricanes) had two assists. Gidlof (New York Islanders) made 30 saves.
Sweden finished just off the podium after winning the silver medal in 2023.
The two teams met in the preliminary round on December 31, and Sweden won 4-2.
Stancl gave the Czech Republic a 1-0 lead with a power play goal at 3:47 of the first period. Adam Jecho (St. Louis Blues) attempted a pass toward the slot that Edstrom stopped on the fly, but it landed in front of Stancl, who beat Gidlof with a one-timer from the right faceoff circle for his seventh goal of the tournament, the most important.
Edstrom tied the game with a power play goal at 12:31. He deflected a shot from Unger Sorum’s blue line onto Hrabal’s pads, but he recovered the rebound and scored from a tight angle.
Sale gave Czechia a 2-1 lead at 9:27 of the second period. Miroslav Holinka (Toronto Maple Leafs) intercepted a Swede pass in the offensive zone, passed it to Sale, and the Czech captain placed a backhand shot over Gidlof’s glove.
Edstrom made it 2-2 at 15:40 when he rushed to the net to redirect Unger Sorum’s pass between Hrabal’s arm and the post.
