Throughout the World Juniors tournament, we’ll be keeping track of all the action and bringing you all of the results in one place.

Sweden vs. Switzerland

The Swedes kicked off the tournament with a close win over the Slovaks, and while they surely came out of that game looking to pick up some more steam and show a little bit more dominance in their offense, this wasn’t quite a level they were able to reach in yesterday’s matchup with the Swiss.

They certainly got themselves off to a hot start, as they were able to jump out to a very early start on a goal from Eric Nilson scored just 54 seconds into the game. The Swedes bought themselves the early edge in momentum with that one as well, but it proved to be an edge not so easy to hold on to — they had two opportunities on the power play before the midway point of the period, but they weren’t able to generate a ton, or as much as they would have like to, and instead the Swiss took the momentum from those two big kills and ran with it. The Swiss were able to capitalize on the good offense they were generating (even with those penalty kills, they would come out of the period with a 15-13 edge in shots) and get themselves on the board with just under six minutes to go in the first frame, and it was an even game again.

The Swiss were nicely able to build on that effort on the other side of the intermission, and while their effort wasn’t perfect — they handed the Swedes another prime opportunity on the power play early in the period — they did some good work to shut down the Swedish offense, holding them to seven shots while putting up another goal themselves, this one from Lars Steiner, to pull them back into the lead.

It was looking, for a time at least, like they might just be able to keep up this level of effort and pull off the first major upset of the tournament, but by the third period, with desperation mounting, the Swedes were able to really find their legs again and run away with this game. They were able to find the equalizer again very early in the period (this time 57 seconds on, by Viggo Bjork), and this time, they weren’t going to let go of that momentum so easily. They were able to build on that, grabbing the lead just under six minutes later on a goal from Lucas Pettersson, and despite a bit of an anxious moment building when they followed that up by taking a tripping penalty, it was their turn to come up with a big kill to take the wind out of the Swiss’s sails. They put up some good chances, but the Swedish goaltending wouldn’t be beaten again, and this one ended with a second goal for Pettersson into the empty net to seal their second win of the tournament.

Final: Sweden 4 – Switzerland 2
Next game up (SWE): Dec 29, 1:00 ET vs. Germany
Next game up (SUI): Dec 29, 8:30 ET vs. Denmark

Finland vs. Latvia

If the first game of the afternoon was a nicely enough balanced game, the second and final of the day between Finland and Latvia was anything but. Both teams were coming into this matchup on a bit of a high — Finland dominated Denmark in their first game of the tournament, beating them by a 6-2 score, while Latvia once again stepped up as a major disruptive force to the Canadians, and despite losing that game, still played them well and managed to take them to overtime — but only one was going to be able to keep that up, and the Finns answered quite decisively that it would be them.

This is a game that, in truth, they had full control over for just about the whole of. The Finns were able to get themselves on the board early in this one, with Emil Hemming scoring just inside the four minute mark, and while they weren’t able to build on that lead immediately — and they did have a prime opportunity, as the Oskars Breidis was called for a delay of game penalty just 25 seconds after giving up that goal, but the Latvians came up with a big kill — that was soon to come.

The Finns were able to pour on two more goals before the period was out — the first by Jasper Kuhta and assisted on by Flyers prospect Max Westergard, and then Westergard got his own first goal of the tournament with just 44 seconds remaining in the frame — totaling three goals while holding the Latvians to just three shots on goal, and with this, it would seem, they were only getting started. Hemming scored on the 5-on-3 power play early in the second period, and Joona Saarelainen (assisted by another Flyers prospect in Heikki Ruohonen) tacked on another to make it five goals unanswered and an official out-scoring of the Latvians’ shots total (one on the period to make it four in total).

We won’t belabor this point, but it was a pretty complete thrumming by the Finns from start to finish. The Latvians managed to generate marginally more offense in the final frame (three shots, matching their first period output), but the Finnish offense continued to overwhelm them. The Finns added three more goals in the third period — from Roope Vesterinen, then a first for Ruohonen, and the final from Lasse Boelius (assisted on by Ruohonen to make it a three-point game for him) — to well and truly put this one away, though it was over well before that point.

Final: Finland 8 – Latvia 0
Next game up (FIN): Dec 29, 3:30 ET vs. Czechia
Next game up (LAT): Dec 30, 4:30 ET vs. Denmark