2025 World Junior Championship: Sweden Still Undefeated in Win Against Kazakhstan

Team Sweden has improved to a win-loss of 2-0-0-0 in the 2025 World Junior Champion in their 8-1 victory over the debuting Kazakhstan team. It wasn’t a pretty showing, which was expected, but the Kazakhs still put up a valiant effort for being heavily outmatched.

The first period wasn’t smooth sailing for the Kazakhs as Sweden scored five goals in the first period. Three of the five goals were shot from the point and tipped in, which was obviously Kazakhstan’s biggest weakness for goaltender Vladimir Nikitin.

Sweden added a sixth goal on the power play to extend their lead to 6-0, but the Kazakhs wouldn’t quietly disappear.

Artur Gross scored the Kazakh’s lone goal of the game and he celebrated accordingly. Kazakhstan made an effort the entire game to get the puck on the net, but they pushed even harder in this sequence.

Gross found himself battling in front of the net and as the puck sprung loose, Gross jammed at it three times and the third time was the charm. Kazakhstan received a loud cheer from the crowd as they broke the shutout bid for the Swedish group and got themselves on the board.

Continuous effort emerged from Kazakhstan, but the overwhelming nature of the powerhouse Swedes proved to be too much for them. After Gross’s goal, Sweden found the back of the net two more times to finish the game 8-1.

Aside from the goal Kazakhstan scored, one of the biggest positives they can take away from this game is their penalty kill which went 2/3. Their goaltender was another bright spot for Kazakhstan as he helped avoid a double-digit disaster on the scoresheet in a tournament where goals matter significantly.

Nikitin stopped 45 of 53 shots he faced against Sweden. The Kazakhs will ride this momentum into tomorrow’s game against Czechia while Sweden gets a day of rest.

Notable Statistics

• Five Swedish players recorded multi-point games while 15 players recorded a point.
• Anton Wahlberg recorded two goals and assists in his four-point outing.
• Kazakh goaltender Vladimir Nikitin stopped 45 of 53 shots while Swedish goaltender Marcus Gidlof stopped 15 of 16 shots.