The world championship of the youth ice hockey games will be decided next night.
Finland was very close to the final place this year as well.
The Czech Republic or Sweden will celebrate this year’s under-20 hockey world championship.
Whichever country wins the championship will break a long dry spell. Junior crown won the world championship in January 2012. For the Czech Republic, you have to go even further. The country’s only World Cup golds at the junior level are from 2000 and 2001.
After Sweden’s previous championship, Canada, USA or Finland have celebrated the World Cup gold. The Young Lions have had reason to celebrate three times: 2014, 2016 and 2019.
Now Finland is fighting for the bronze medals against Canada. USA’s season already ended with a loss against Finland in the quarterfinals.
Canada and USA are regular guests in the final match. This is suitable as a continuation of the rare statistics: the last time the World Cup final was played without these two countries was 10 years ago. At that time, Finland defeated Russia. In the 2000s, the final without North American teams has been played only five times before.
The decisive final of this year’s world championship starts at 03:30 Finnish time next night.