Canada kicks off its quest for a 21st title when it takes on Finland tonight to headline the opening day of the 2025 world junior hockey championship.
Canada will field a team of top young prospects at the Ottawa-based tournament, including 17-year-old Gavin McKenna of the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat Tigers.
Winnipeg Jets prospect Brayden Yager is Canada’s captain at this edition of the world juniors. He was part of the Canadian team that finished a disappointing fifth at the 2024 tournament in Sweden after back-to-back titles and will be looking to help Canada get back to the top of the podium.
Finland is looking for its sixth title and first since 2019.
Earlier, defenceman Cole Hutson had five assists as the United States opened its defence of its gold medal with a resounding 10-4 win over Germany.
James Hagens had two goals and two assists while Gabe Perreault and Brodie Ziemer also scored twice for the Americans, who are considered among the favourites in Ottawa.
Trevor Connelly, Brandon Svoboda, Carey Terrance and Cole Eiserman also scored for the Americans.
Julius Sumpf, David Lewandowski, Lenny Boos and Timo Ruckdaschel scored for Germany.
Trey Augustine made 18 saves for the U.S., while a busy Nico Pertuch stopped 46 shots.
Germany next plays Finland on Friday, while the U.S. has a day off before facing Latvia on Saturday.
Meanwhile, defenceman Axel Sandin Pellikka scored a natural hat trick as Sweden kicked off its tournament with a 5-2 rout of Slovakia.
Sandin Pellikka, a Detroit Red Wings prospect playing in hist third world juniors, added an assist for Sweden, which is looking for its first title since 2012.
Rasmus Bergqvist and Linus Eriksson had the other goals for Sweden.
Dalibor Dvorsky had a goal just under 12 minutes into the game to open the scoring for Slovakia, which was then held without a goal until Daniel Jencko scored on a power play with 85 seconds left in regulation.
Sweden plays Kazakhstan and Slovakia meets Switzerland on Friday.
Switzerland will take on the Czech Republic in the other opening-day game.