Comments / New

2026 World Junior Hockey Championship: Canada beats Finland to claim bronze

There wasn’t a lot of emotion, but there were a lot of goals in the Bronze Medal Game.

Posted on by Justin Blades
Jan 5, 2026; St. Paul, Minnesota, USA; Canada defensemen Zayne Parekh (19) shoots the puck against Finland during the second period in the third place game of the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship ice hockey tournament at Grand Casino Arena. | Credit: Nick Wosika-Imagn Images

After having their hopes of playing for a gold medal dashed on Sunday, Canada and Finland had to regroup to play for a bronze medal on Monday afternoon.

Canada was the team that seemed to have recovered better from the disappointment, with a quick start. As many of their goals in the tournament have been created, Michael Hage set up the opening, carrying the puck to the crease and pulling a defender with him before slinging it over to an open Sam O’Reilly. O’Reilly just had to deke around Finnish goaltender Petteri Rimpinen to deposit the puck in the net.

Another common outcome following a Canadian goal occurred shortly afterward: an immediate answer from the opposition. The defensive coverage was too loose to contain Arttu Valila, who evened up the score 2:13 later.

Canada didn’t get fazed by the goal against, by this point used to trading goals in high-scoring games. About a minute-and-a-half later, Braeden Cootes took a Keaton Verhoeff feed to restore the one-goal lead.

Another difficult moment of defence led Zayne Parekh to take a holding penalty. Finland was able to move the puck around the zone with relative ease, and took advantage of a failed clearing attempt to reset, and find another tying goal as goaltender Carter George lost track of the puck and had it slide through his five-hole.

In their bid to take the lead again, Canada had a shot for off the post, bu drew a cross-checking call in the process. Parekh scored on the power play, going off the crossbar and in for the defenceman’s fifth goal and 12th point of the tournament.

Less than two minutes into the second period, Porter Martone gave Canada its first two-goal lead of the game.

Finland then put Canada’s dangerous power play, which had improved to 11 for 21 in the first period on Parekh’s goal, back on the ice with a slashing call. Hage sent the puck across to Gavin McKenna, who in turn sent it toward the crease where Sam O’Reilly was stationed to tip the puck in, increasing the power-play’s conversion rate to 54.5%.

Finland was able to get a small win by killing off a hooking penalty, keeping Canada’s power play off the board for the first time in the game. A few minutes later there were able to reduce the deficit to two goals with a marker from Heikki Ruohonen, who shot the puck over a Canadian defenceman lying on the ice and inside the arm of George.

The Finns survived another power play, a rather lacklustre effort from Canada, and went on to draw a call of their own as Ethan MacKenzie was sent off for holding. They were unable to take advantage of the five-on-four opportunity, and saw another two minutes come off the clock.

With just over six minutes to play, O’Reilly just missed a hat-trick goal off a nice pass from McKenna. The shift still ended on a positive as Hage set up McKenna for a goal, giving those two players their fourth point of the contest, and more importantly a more comfortable three-goal lead.

George was called upon to make one more big save, but the deficit was too big for Finland to overcome as Canada won the game, taking home the bronze medal, their first hardware in three years of the tournament.

Support Habs Eyes On The Prize by signing up for Norton 360

LOGIN SIGN UP

Talking Points