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2026 World Junior Hockey Championship: Canada wins Group B in a wild 7-4 win

Cole Beaudoin scored the winner and added an insurance goal as Canada settled down to claim the win.

Posted on by Justin Blades
Dec 31, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, UNITED STATES; Canada forward Cole Beaudoin (26) celebrates his goal against Finland during the second period in group play during the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship at 3M Arena. | Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The 20th and final game of the 2026 World Juniors’ preliminary round, Canada and Finland took to the ice in Minneapolis with top spot in Group B on the line. The winner would earn the easiest path through the playoff round on its quest for a gold medal.

It didn’t take long for the game to get its first goal. Zayne Parekh, who has been one of Canada’s best players all tournament long, got the first shot of the game inside the right faceoff circle, firing the puck off the post and in for a 1-0 Canada lead.

It didn’t take long for Finland to come with an answer, however, as Julius Miettinen was able to get in behind Canada’s defence to accept a pass, and made a great move to put the puck past Carter George into the top of the net.

Off the centre-ice faceoff, Canada came down the ice as Michael Hage looked for a lane to the net. Not finding one, he set up at the side of the crease and sent one of his accurate passes to Brady Martin, who solved goaltender Petteri Rimpinen for the second time. At the 4:26 mark of the opening period, the scoreboard and the shot counter both displayed a 2-1 edge for Canada.

Yet again the Finns came up with an immediate response. Just over a minute later Oliver Suvanto collected a rebound off the first save of the game, and sent the puck in past a recovering George to make it 2-2.

Around the midpoint of the game, Ben Danford was crunched into the end boards in his own zone, leading to a boarding call from the officials. Staying disciplined is surely something the Finns discussed ahead of the game, and seconds into the power play Canada proved why. Hage got the puck on the left side of the ice and saw Brady Martin standing in front. Hage sent a hard shot low along the ice off Rimpinen’s pad, with the rebound popping right onto Martin’s stick for him to net the fifth goal of the period for a 3-2 lead.

It was therefore Finland’s turn to put the puck in the net, and they did that on a shot from distance that got past George as the goalie’s glove made contact with a Finnish stick as he went for the save. Canada challenged the decision, but the officials saw that contact has been made outside the crease, and the goal stood.

Finland received a power play for the failed challenge, and set up a shooting gallery in Canada’s zone. They were setting up dangerous chances for the full two minutes, but the closest they came to their first lead was a tip by Miettinen off the post, and the Canadian defenders did well to block several attempts.

Things were relatively calm the rest of the period considering how the game began. The final seven minutes were played with no additional goals, leaving the score at 3-3 after an eventful opening frame.

The play was a bit more composed to begin the second period, with not nearly the quality of chance the game had in the opening frame. The first opportunity went to Canada about six minutes in as Max Westergard went off for high-sticking to put a dangerous power play on the ice. Michael Hage had four shots looking to put his team in the lead, but the best one clanged off the crossbar and stayed out.

Canada was having trouble getting set up on its next power play, but found a different way to score. On a line change, Tij Iginla came off the bench unnoticed by the Finnish defence, and a perfect feed from Parekh sent him in on breakaway to give Canada a 4-3 lead.

Canada added a fifth goal with under six minutes to play, but Harrison Brunicke’s marker was waved off as the ref was blowing his whistle before the puck went in thinking it had been covered by Rimpinen.

The Canadians got their official fifth a few minutes later when Caleb Desnoyers poked the puck free a split second before Rimpinen could freeze it, popping it across to Cole Beaudoin for an easy goal with the goaltender on the opposite side of the net.

As they had done on the three goals in the first period, Finland had an immediate reply to the goal. George tried to seal his post as the Finns got near the net, but Roope Vesterinen found space above his shoulder to make it a 5-4 game.

Finland wasn’t able to even the score on a power play before the horn sounded, but carried a minute of five-on-four time over to the third period.

With the penalty killed, Canada maintained its defensive structure as the game returned to five-on-five. After an opening period of reckless abandon from both teams, the Canadians were making more of a point to clamp down and prevent anything overly dangerous from the Finns. Not even another power play for Finland five minutes in could generate anything to get the trailing team back on even terms.

The missed opportunities proved costly for the Finns as Canada extended the lead to two goals. Sam O’Reilly slid a pass ahead to Beaudoin racing to the net, and Beaudoin got just enough on his redirect to send it beyond Rimpinen’s pad and inside the post.

In the final minutes Canada patrolled the neutral zone and only launched counter attacks after winning pucks, preventing the Finns for getting in on offence. With two minutes to play, Rimpinen headed to the bench for the extra attacker as Finland needed to score a goal quickly to get back in the game.

Finland finally got set up in the offensive zone with a gameplan following a timeout, but the Beaudoin line added one final goal to seal a strong game for the unit, with Beaudoin setting up O’Reilly for the empty-netter.

With the 7-4 win, Canada takes Group B and will play Slovakia in the quarter-finals. Finland has to settle for third, behind Canada and Czechia, to set up a meeting with the United States that could be the closest game of the opening playoff round on Friday.

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