On Tap: World Junior Championship final, 3rd-place game

The 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship concludes with the championship and third-place game Sunday.

All games on NHL Network in U.S., TSN in Canada

Bronze-medal game: Czechia vs. Sweden (3:30 p.m. ET) -- This will be a repeat of their New Year's Eve game that Sweden won 4-2. Czechia took seven penalties, leading to Herman Traff (New Jersey Devils) scoring the game's first goal on the power play, and then making it 2-0 six seconds after a Czechia penalty expired.

"The main thing is the discipline," Czechia coach Patrik Augusta said. "The game we lost against them, we had seven penalties, and that was just way too many against the quality of the Swedish players."

Czechia will be looking to take home a World Juniors medal for the third straight year for the first time, after winning silver in 2023 and the bronze last year.

Sweden has been led by a balanced attack that has 10 players with at least two goals, topped by four each from Anton Wahlberg (Buffalo Sabres) and Axel Sandin-Pellikka (Detroit Red Wings), who is tied for the tournament lead with nine points.

After winning a silver medal last year, Sweden will be looking to take something home from their time in Ottawa.

"Try to reset as much as you can and be ready for the game tomorrow," said forward Otto Stenberg (St. Louis Blues), who scored two goals in the 4-3 overtime loss to Finland on Saturday. "We don't want to go home with fourth place. We want to win tomorrow."

Czechia forward Jakub Stancl (St. Louis Blues), who scored his tournament-best sixth goal in a 4-1 loss to the United States on Saturday, had a similar sentiment.

"It's our motivation because we lost against them in the group stage," he said. "So we just want our revenge, and we don't want to leave Ottawa with nothing."

Gold-medal game: United States vs. Finland (7:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN) -- This will be a repeat of their game Dec. 29, when Tuomas Uronen (Vegas Golden Knights) scored in overtime for a 5-4 Finland victory.

Finland goalie Petteri Rimpinen (2025 draft eligible) made 30 saves. The player nicknamed "Showtime" leads the tournament with a .939 save percentage while playing every minute of all six games.

"He's the main reason that we're here," defenseman Emil Pieniniemi (Pittsburgh Penguins) said. "Just a hell of a game, every game."

Finland coach Lauri Mikkola said he isn't worried about Rimpinen being tired with Sunday being his seventh game in 11 days, including playing back-to-back days for the second time.

"He has been playing in the Finnish league [with K-Espoo] a lot, and this is how often we're playing there," Mikkola said. "So it's normal for him. That's no problem for Showtime."

The U.S. is the defending champion and will be looking to go back-to-back at the World Juniors for the first time.

"It would mean the world," said forward Gabe Perreault (New York Rangers), one of seven players on the current roster to play in a game at the 2024 WJC. "No other U.S. team has ever done it. And I think for our group, the legacy, I think it would mean everything for us. So we'll be ready to go for sure."

Perreault (three goals, six assists) is part of a top line, along with Washington Capitals prospect Ryan Leonard (five goals, three assists) and James Hagens (four goals, four assists), a candidate to be the No. 1 pick of the 2025 NHL Draft, that has been one of the most dynamic in the tournament.

Puck management will be key against a Finland team that scored just 19 goals but is opportunistic and is led by Konsta Helenius (Buffalo Sabres) with seven assists, including four in the 4-3 overtime win against Sweden on Saturday, and Jesse Kiiskinen (Detroit Red Wings) who has six points (five goals, one assist) in six games.

"We know they're obviously a good team, can score pretty quick in transition," Perreault said. "I think just cleaning up those turnovers that we had in puck management and just play our game, and we should be in a good place."