2025 World Junior Championship: Czechia Eliminates Canada for Second Straight Year

For the second consecutive year, Czechia eliminated Canada in the quarterfinal to advance to the 2025 World Junior Championship semifinal.

Related: A Quick Guide to the 2025 World Junior Championship

A 4-3 victory over the Canadians made history but for all the wrong reasons. Canada misses out on the semifinal for the second straight year since the World Juniors took a playoff format 30 tournaments ago.

It certainly wasn’t easy for Czechia to climb this hill as Canada pushed back attempting to spoil the Czech’s medal streak.

Czechia didn’t waste time getting on the board as Petr Sikora scored 43 seconds into the game as he converted on a giveaway in Canada’s end to put Czechia up 1-0.

Later on in the period, Canada’s Cole Beaudoin was assessed a five-minute major plus a game misconduct for kneeing Czechia’s Petr Sikora. It was clear in this play that Sikora sold for a call as he was caught on camera looking for a referee to show just how much pain he was in.

Sikora miraculously recovered and returned to the ice for the next play.

While Canada could’ve collapsed during this extended penalty kill, Tanner Howe found himself scoring the short-handed equalizer to make it 1-1. However, Canada’s momentum was squashed as Czechia scored two minutes later when Sam Dickinson tried to clear the puck and instead put it into the Canadian net. Jakub Stancl was credited with Czechia’s second goal of the game.

Things quieted down as Czechia couldn’t score again on the power play and the Canadians would start to get their swagger back, but a goal with 2.1 seconds left from Eduard Sale sucked the life out of the Canadians.

Canada had to go into intermission down 3-1 in a game where they were already being heavily outmatched. With their backs against the wall, Canada dug deep in the second period as Tanner Molendyk’s shot from the point was tipped in by Porter Martone to bring the Canadians within one after a power play.

The third period kept fans on the edge of their seats, time wound down to less than five minutes before Canada scored what seemed like it was the tournament-defining goal. A relentless offensive onslaught on Czechia’s goaltender Michael Hrabal became just too much as Bradly Nadeau tipped in a loose puck to tie the game left.

With the Canadians tying the game late in the third period on home soil, it seemed as if we were headed to overtime. Then it happened, Canada was headed to another penalty kill.

Discipline was an issue from the moment the puck dropped in Canada’s first round robin game and it only got worse. Combine it with their lack of morning skates, practices and lack of warmups before a game, and it makes sense.

The Czechs took full advantage of this as Adam Jecho put the dagger into the hearts of the Canadians on their home soil, the one-timer that silenced the Canadian Tire Centre and dashed the hopes of Team Canada.

A 4-3 score with 39.1 seconds left was enough to lift the Czechs to victory as they look to continue their medal streak. The Canadians will already be looking to massively bounce back in the 2026 tournament.

The historic loss marks Canada’s second consecutive year that they are not in the semifinals. Czechia will go on to play Team USA on Saturday, January 4th at 2:30 pm CST.