See the highlights of Canada’s 3-1 win over Sweden in our recap right here.
It’s fitting that the teams ranked first and second in both offence and defence will be vying for gold at the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship. Canada and Sweden have been the cream of the crop at this year’s tournament, with each looking primed to take the world under-20 title.
While the goaltending is fairly close between the competing countries, each allowing fewer than two goals per game, Canada ran away with the goal-scoring lead through the first six games played, scoring an average of six times per contest.
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Helping them achieve that is an impressively efficient power play, currently operating at over 56%, and accounting for 13 of the team’s 36 goals. Normally the top country in that department, the Swedes have been fairly average in 2018, only scoring on about one of every four power-play chances they’ve received.
Just a few games ago, no Canadian was ranked among the top 10 scorers for the tournament, but you will now find four of them on that list. Jordan Kyrou is just one point off the pace, while Cale Makar leads all defencemen with eight points.
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Rasmus Dahlin is just two back of Makar, and it has been an incredible showing from the 17-year-old defenceman. He was already the consensus pick to go first overall in the upcoming NHL draft, but his performance against his peers, most of whom are two years his senior, has hockey fans around the world wondering just how good he can become.
How to watch
Puck drop: 8:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM PST
In Canada: TSN1, TSN4, TSN4K (English,) RDS (French)
In the United States: NHL Network
Live stream: TSNGO
Team Canada projected lineup
CAN Forwards
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| #9 Dillon Dube | #23 Sam Steel | #25 Jordan Kyrou |
| #12 Boris Katchouk | #27 Robert Thomas | #16 Taylor Raddysh |
| #11 Jonah Gadjovich | #20 Michael McLeod | #19 Drake Batherson |
| #14 Maxime Comtois | #21 Brett Howden | #24 Alex Formenton |
| #17 Tyler Steenbergen |
CAN Defencemen
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| #28 Victor Mete | #3 Conor Timmins |
| #10 Kale Clague | #8 Dante Fabbro |
| #2 Jake Bean | #7 Cale Makar |
| #6 Cal Foote |
CAN Goaltenders
| Goaltenders |
|---|
| #31 Carter Hart |
| #1 Colton Point |
Team Sweden projected lineup
SWE Forwards
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| #17 Frederik Karlström | #24 Lias Andersson | #19 Alexander Nylander |
| #28 Fabian Zetterlund | #16 Linus Lindström | #14 Elias Pettersson |
| #9 Tim Söderlund | #20 Isac Lundeström | #29 Oscar Steen |
| #12 Glenn Gustafsson | #10 Marcus Davidsson | #22 Axel Jonsson-Fjällby |
| #21 Jesper Boqvist |
SWE Defencemen
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| #27 Jacob Moverare | #7 Timothy Liljegren |
| #8 Rasmus Dahlin | #26 Erik Brännström |
| #23 Jesper Sellgren | #5 Gustav Lindström |
| #6 Linus Högberg |
SWE Goaltenders
| Goaltenders |
|---|
| #30 Filip Gustavsson |
| #1 Filip Larsson |
