OTTAWA, Canada — Team USA will be playing for back-to-back gold medals for the first time in history when they take on Finland in the final at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship. After beating Sweden for gold last year, the U.S. will take on the team that ousted the Swedes from this year's finals.
Team USA will be seeking their seventh gold medal at the World Juniors, while Finland seeks its sixth gold medal and first since 2019. No country aside from the USA, Canada or Finland has won a World Junior Championship gold medal going all the way back to 2012 when Sweden won.
New York Rangers draft pick Gabe Perreault helped lead the U.S. to victory in their semi-final matchup versus Czechia. No. 34 was named the Player of the Game after tallying one goal and one assist.
Gabe Perreault earns the Player of the Game in today's semifinal win 👊 #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/3Rqh6JTjcN
— USA Hockey (@usahockey) January 5, 2025
Rangers draft pick Drew Fortescue is also on the Team USA roster and will be one for Blueshirt fans to watch as well.
These two teams have squared off twice already since they got to Ottawa. The first one was a pre-tournament game where USA won 5-2. In the second game, Finland won 4-3 in overtime in a game that will certainly give the U.S. roster some extra motivation heading into the finals.
Finland and USA have played in the gold-medal game once before, with Finland coming out on top in 2019 thanks to a late goal from former Ranger and current Seattle Kraken member Kaapo Kakko. USA is otherwise 6-2 in gold-medal games all-time. Finland is 5-5.
USA By The Numbers Going Into Gold-Medal Game
- Record: 5-0-1-0
- Goals For: 33 (1st)
- Goals Against: 13 (2nd)
- Power Play Efficiency: 9-for-25 | 36% (1st)
- Penalty Kill Efficiency: 18-for-22 | 81.8% (4th)
- Team Save Percentage: .927 (3rd)
Finland By The Numbers Going Into Gold Medal Game
- Record: 4-1-0-1
- Goals For: 19 (4th)
- Goals Against: 14 (3rd)
- Power Play Efficiency: 4-for-22 | 18.2% (8th)
- Penalty Kill Efficiency: 19-for-21 | 90.5% (2nd)
- Team Save Percentage: .935 (1st)
How to Tune In
Team USA will face Finland in the gold-medal game Sunday, Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m. EST live on NHL Network. The tournament will be streamed on TSN+ in Canada, as well.