
Canada’s National Men's Under-18 Team goes for gold Saturday at the 2025 IIHF U18 Men’s World Championship, taking on Sweden as it looks for back-to-back gold medals for the first time in tournament history.
Last Game
Canada blanked Slovakia 4-0 in its semifinal Friday
to book its spot in the gold medal game. Jack Ivankovic was perfect between
the pipes, making 24 saves for the shutout. Xavier Villeneuve opened the
scoring early in the second period before Cole Reschny, Jack Nesbitt and
Ryan Roobroeck added power-play goals in the third to provide the final
margin of victory.
The Swedes earned their spot in the final by outlasting the host Americans 4-3 in their semifinal. Viggo Björck and Torkel Jennersjö scored third-period goals to break open a 2-2 game and Love Härenstam did the rest, finishing with 38 saves – 13 in the final 20 minutes – as the U.S. outshot Sweden 41-23.
Last Meeting
The pre-tournament game 12 days ago in Plano? We don’t want to talk about that. So let’s go back to the semifinals at U18 Men’s Worlds last year. The Canadians burst out of the gate, leading 4-0 after one period thanks to Liam Greentree, Gavin McKenna, Tij Iginla and Ryder Ritchie. Sweden trimmed the four-goal deficit to three after 40 minutes and got it to one with five minutes to go, but Canada saw out a 5-4 victory en route to a gold medal game in Finland.
The Canadians and Swedes also met in the preliminary-round finale at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup last summer in Edmonton, with Canada pulling out a 2-1 victory. Ben Kindel opened the scoring just past the seven-minute mark and McKenna provided the game-winner midway through the third period, while Ivankovic was terrific in a 23-save effort.
What to Watch
He’s been mentioned in this space before, but it bears repeating – Ivankovic is really, really good. Less than three weeks shy of his 18th birthday, the Mississauga-born puck-stopper owns a résumé that includes gold medals at the Canada Winter Games, U17 World Challenge, IIHF U18 Men’s World Championship and Hlinka Gretzky Cup, and a history-making start at the World Juniors. And all he’s done in Texas is go 5-0 with a 1.27 goals-against average and .952 save percentage, both tournament-leading marks among goaltenders with at least 120 minutes of action. Put together his two U18 stints in the Maple Leaf this season (including this tournament and the Hlinka Gretzky Cup), and Ivankovic has nine wins in as many starts, allowing only nine goals.
The Swedes ice the top three scorers in the tournament – Filip Ekberg (10-8—18), Sascha Boumedienne (1-13—14) and Ivar Stenberg (8-5—13). Ekberg and Boumedienne did most of their damage in a pair of prelim games; Ekberg had four goals and an assist in a win over Switzerland and two of each in a win over Czechia, while Boumedienne had a goal and five assists against the Swiss and four helpers against the Czechs. Milton Gästrin (third amongst International skaters) is the highest-ranked skater by NHL Central Scouting in the Swedish lineup; he’s contributed three goals and 10 points in six games. And while Härenstam’s numbers don’t jump off the page, he proved against the Americans that he has the ability to steal a game.
A Look Back
The Canadians and Swedes have been very familiar foes at U18 Men’s Worlds, meeting 23 times since 2003.
It’s the first time the long-time international rivals have met for U18 gold, but they do have two prior clashes for bronze, with each winning once. In 2007, Angelo Esposito scored twice, but the Swedes earned an 8-3 victory in Finland. Seven years later, also in the Nordic nation, Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist and Mason McDonald made 38 saves in a 3-1 Canadian victory.
All-time record: Canada leads 13-10 (1-1 in OT/SO) Canada goals: 94 Sweden goals: 74
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