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2026 World Junior Hockey Championship: Canada claims a 7-5 win over Czechia

Day one ended with a high-scoring affair between gold medal contenders.

Posted on by Justin Blades
Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

To end a four-game slate on the opening day of the 2026 World Juniors, Canada and Czechia hit the ice. Canada went into the tournament eager to make up for early exits in each of the last two tournaments, on both occasions coming out on the losing end versus the Czechs in the quarter-finals.

The pace was high to start the match, an indication of how important both nations felt the game was. The first advantage was earned by Canada on a hooking call to Vaclav Nestrasil.

The Canadians were guilty of a few too many passes on the power play and didn’t create many scoring chances. Coming out of the box, Nestrasil collected the puck behind the defence at centre ice, got in a breakaway, but ran out of room as he tried to deke and could only stuff the puck toward Carter George’s pad.

After the penalty, the two teams were playing an even game, with great chances for each team as the pace held. The goaltenders needed to be sharp to keep some dangerous attackers off the board.

Czech goalie Michael Orsulak was the first to crack, but it took an excellent setup to make that happen. Michael Hage started it off with a zone entry before dishing the puck off to Gavin McKenna. McKenna skated toward the corner, but spun and put the puck directly on the tape of Brady Martin in the slot, and Martin was able to pick his spot to put Canada up 1-0.

The lead was short-lived. With Canada caught in the offensive zone, the puck was advanced to the opposite blue line for an easy zone entry, and a Canadian defender losing his stick only made the situation more dangerous. The puck stayed near the crease until it finally fell to Tomas Poletin, who beat George with his shot.

At the other end, Canada was able to quickly restore its lead thanks to same line that scored the first goal. After some good movement around the offensive zone, the puck landed on the stick of Hage in the slot, and he quickly fired it off the crossbar and in to put his nation back on top.

The lead was almost increased to two in the dying seconds, but Czech forward Maxmilian Curran made a glove save and then tossed the puck behind his net. While it would have been a penalty shot if detected live, a review could only check if the puck had crossed the line, which it had not. The play allowed the Czechs to head to the dressing room down just a single goal.

Czechia was due to get its first power play early in the second period, but got the goal they were looking for with an extra skater on the ice on the delayed call, Adam Benák sent the puck to the front of the net, and Vojtech Cihar was waiting for the play to tip it up under the bar to tie the game 2-2.

Hage was hooked trying to cross the offensive blue line not long after to earn his team a power play. Canada was unable to take advantage of yet more strong work from that line, recorded just a single shot on goal in the two minutes of the man advantage.

With the penalty killed, the Czechs went back to work to continue what had been a strong period before the power play. They netted a third goal to take the lead against some sloppy Canadian coverage that left Petr Sikora open to give Czechia its first lead.

The Canadians had clearly been the second-best team in the middle frame, but they still had enough talent to capitalize on a rare shift spent in the offensive zone. The puck found its way to the stick of Zayne Parekh just inside the blue line, and defencemen quickly fired the puck to the top corner of the net to even things up at three.

Canada came out with a lot of energy to start the third period and hemmed the Czechs in their own zone for several shifts, forcing Czechia to ice the puck. It didn’t lead to a goal, but Canada did draw a penalty at the end of the sequence. On the power play it was again the hard, accurate shot of Parekh that made the difference. The defenceman glided with the puck off the wall into the middle of the ice, and once more found a top corner of the net to give Canada its first lead since early in the second period.

The Czechs so no quit despite losing their lead. Some Lane Hutson-like work by Tomas Galvas allowed him to hold on to the puck in Canada’s zone to allow his teammates to join him. Esstablished in the zone, the Czechs were able to outnumber the Canadian players near the crease, where Poletin fired in his second goal of the game to even the score at 4-4.

That lead lasted all of 71 seconds as Tij Iginla took a pass from Michael Misa and fired a low shot from mid-range that found its way through Orsulak.

Under three minutes later, Hage found an open Ethan MacKenzie at the blue line, and the defenceman had about a quarter of the offensive zone to walk into, beating Orsulak to create the first two-goal lead of the game.

The Czechs refused to let that be the final big moment of the game. With about four-and-a-half minutes to go, Galvas made another mark on the game, this time a goal from low in the slot to get his team within a goal.

Czechia pulled Orsulak with about 90 seconds to go, and Porter Martone went in alone to hit the empty net to all but seal the result.

On the celebration, Martone gave the Czechs a sliver of life when he mockingly tapped a Czech player on the pants on his way to bench. The Czechs didn’t score, but Canada’s captain ensured a stern talking-to from head coach Dale Hunter after what ended up a 7-5 win for Canada.

Both teams will be back in action tomorrow. Canada will try to move to 2-0 in the tournament versus Latvia, a team that upset them in the preliminary round last year, while the Czechs will play Denmark in the final game of the day.

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