WJC Three Stars Day 2: Feldbergs backstops Latvia to stunning upset

Day 2 of the 2025 world junior championship has officially wrapped and we've now seen every team in action at least once this tournament.

Though the second day saw less offensive action than Day 1, there was no shortage of excitement. The day's opener saw Slovakia score the late, third-period tiebreaker against Switzerland to take its first win of the tournament, followed shortly after by a tight, 3-1 game between Germany and Finland that got the Finns in the win column for the first time.

Sweden continued its Group B dominance with an 8-1 outburst over Kazakhstan that featured contributions from up and down the lineup and Latvia stunned Canada and the world by beating the powerhouse Canadians in a shootout after tying the game twice.

As we prepare for the preliminary round to continue, let's take a look at Day 2's three stars.

3rd star: Artur Gross, Kazakhstan

We can argue which individual performances on the ice today held the most weight. Jan Chovan's third-period goal secured Slovakia's first win. Germany's Clemens Sagar scored the goal that gave his team momentum, if ultimately unsuccessful. Finland keeper Petteri Rimpinen kept his squad in the lead to earn their first win of the tournament.

All great performances. But no goal meant more to their team — perhaps to their country — than the goal scored by Kazakhstan's Artur Gross in the second period.

There were just over two minutes remaining in the middle frame and Kazakhstan was being out-shot 32-9 and out-scored 6-0 when Nikita Sitnikov made a nifty move just inside the faceoff dot, before sending a cross-ice pass to a waiting Gross. Swedish netminder Marcus Gidlof made the initial two saves, but Gross stayed with the puck and was eventually able to pot the third rebound on the backhand with Gidlof caught down and out.

It was the only goal that Kazakhstan would score, but probably the most memorable for the players on the team. The fans at TD Place in Ottawa let it be known to the players on the ice how special the country's goal at the world juniors since 2020 truly was.

Gross, an undrafted 19-year-old, plays for Snezhnye Barsy Astana in the MHL — a junior hockey league based out of Russia — along with 18 of his teammates. With just one NHL draftee on the team, it's possible this elite junior tournament is the highest level of hockey the under-20s will see.

They'll continue their journey on Saturday against Czechia.

2nd star: Anton Wahlberg, Sweden

It is just their second game of the tournament and they've thus far played lesser opponents, but the Swedes are looking just as dangerous as the silver medal-winning 2024 squad.

Sweden had seven different goal-scorers in its 8-1 rout of Kazakhstan, which is not only a testament to its skill offensively, but also to its depth.

After being led by their captain on Thursday, it was Anton Wahlberg who was all over the ice on Friday night, creating offence at will and finishing the outing with two goals and two assists.

The 19-year-old Buffalo Sabres prospect helped Sweden to open the scoring, doing well to protect the puck on an offensive zone entry, before sending a cross-ice pass to Tom Willander, whose point shot was tipped by Victor Eklund.

He added one more assist in the first before capping the Swedes' monster five-goal first period with his first of the evening with just under 20 seconds remaining. Eklund, down below the goal line, won a battle against the Kazakh defenders, springing the puck free and allowing Zeb Forsfjall to find an open Wahlberg at the faceoff dot. Wahlberg, who has four goals and 10 points in 25 AHL games to begin his North American pro hockey career, wasn't going to miss from there.

He doubled his goal total to begin the second period on the power play, when a weak point shot by Theo Lindstein trickled to a waiting Wahlberg in the slot, who sent it glove side past Vladimir Nikitin.

His four-point affair on Friday catapulted him to fourth in tournament scoring, behind Americans Cole Hutson (first), James Hagens (third) and fellow countryman Axel Sandin-Pellikka (second).

1st star: Linards Feldbergs, Latvia

Look, no one is going to say that this was Canada's best game — in fact, for much of the opening period, they looked listless and things were made worse by the loss of top defenceman Matthew Schaefer halfway through the frame.

But it would be frankly disrespectful to completely disregard Latvia's performance on Friday night and more specifically, that of its goaltender Linards Feldbergs, who backstopped his team to a shocking upset over Canada.

He faced a barrage of shots in the second period, as the Canadians finally started to find their footing and out-shot their European opponents 21-4. Feldbergs stopped all but one shot he faced in the middle frame and by all accounts kept his team in the game.

That became all the more important when Latvia tied the game not once, but twice, in the third period to force overtime.

Feldbergs made stellar saves in overtime, in which Canada controlled possession for most of the extra frame. He held Latvia square and forced a shootout, where he made eight saves for the shocking shootout win.

All told, Feldbergs made 48 saves on 50 shots during regulation time for a staggering .960 save percentage, frustrating Canada's stars and sending Latvia to its first victory over Canada in their tournament history. For context, Canada was 4-0-0 against Latvia coming into this game, with a staggering 40-4 goal differential and had hit double digits three times in those contests.

The undrafted netminder currently plays for Sherbrooke Phoenix in the QMJHL, where he's posted a .899 save percentage and an 11-4-2 record in 25 games.

Honourable mentions: Dalibor Dvorsky is competing in his fourth, and last, world juniors but Slovakia's captain is the lifeblood of his team. He scored the opening goal of the tournament for the Slovaks on Thursday and registered a secondary assist in Friday's win. More importantly, he's trusted in all situations for Slovakia and led all forwards against Switzerland in ice time (23:16). ... Canada's stunning loss to Latvia was by no means the fault of goaltender Jack Ivankovic. The Canadians looked listless to begin the game and Ivankovic, the gold-medal goalie at the U-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, made saves on all nine shots he faced in the opening frame. That the Canadians have only surrendered two goals in regulation this tournament is less of a testament to their team defence and more to their goalies' stellar performances.