World Juniors Final Preview: Can Finland dethrone the United States?

The 2025 World Junior Hockey Championship will be remembered for producing some incredible surprises.

Team Finland’s victory over previously undefeated Team Sweden, in the semifinals on Saturday, was a marginal surprise considering the depth of Sweden’s roster. But Finland and Sweden have a heated rivalry, similar to Canada and the United States, and the Finns tend to play some of their best hockey versus the Tre Krona. Saturday belonged to the Finns as they came out on top with a 4-3 overtime victory over Sweden.

Team USA's game has been building throughout the tournament. They suffered a setback, however, in the preliminary round versus Team Finland. The Finns defeated the Americans 4-3 in overtime. Suffice it to say, the Americans won’t lack motivation in the rematch on Sunday, with the stakes as high as they can be.

Here’s a look at the teams who will battle for the gold medal at the world juniors in Ottawa:

FINLAND

• The Finns rely heavily on their top three lines. Their top two lines all average over 18 minutes per game. The third line isn’t far behind, averaging just over 16 minutes.

• Team Finland’s leading scorer is Buffalo Sabres draft pick Konsta Helenius. He’s registered seven assists in the tournament but has yet to score a goal. Helenius is developing in the AHL playing for the Rochester Americans. He has six goals and 11 assists in the AHL so far this season.

Helenius is a quick strike forward who transitions the play with speed through the neutral zone. Opponents have to respect that speed. Once he gets the outside lane, he prefers to identify linemates joining him off the rush and make plays from the perimeter. The puck goes through him, from the flank, on Finland's top power-play unit.

• Finland doesn’t have the same kind of depth on defence. Team captain, and Minnesota Wild draft pick (122nd overall in 2024), Aron Kiviharju hovers around 25 minutes time on ice per game. He’s deployed in all situations with his partner Emil Pieniniemi, who’s averaging 24 minutes per game in the tournament. Pieniniemi plays for the Kingston Frontenacs in the OHL and his rights belong to the Pittsburgh Penguins (drafted 91st overall in 2023).

• After Kiviharju and Pieniniemi, Finland rolls out an interesting defence pairing.

Mitja Jokinen only measures five-foot-11, 172 pounds but he’s been very effective defensively in the tournament and is always willing to get in the lane to block shots.

Daniel Nieminen is similar in stature to Jokinen. He’s listed at five-foot-11, 177 pounds. The biggest difference between the partners is Nieminen is more active rushing the puck and joining as an extra layer offensively.

Jokinen and Nieminen have yet to be drafted by an NHL club.

• Finland’s goaltender Petteri Rimpinen has made timely saves for this team throughout the tournament. Rimpinen’s statistics are impressive. He’s played every game for the Finns and posted a 2.12 goals-against average and .940 save percentage.

Rimpinen is another undrafted player from Team Finland. He’s small by NHL goalie standards at five-foot-11, 175 pounds but he’s athletic, fronts shooters aggressively and has great quickness pushing laterally to make saves. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear his name called at the draft next June. Rimpinen plays for Espoo in Finland’s top pro league Liiga. He’s posted great numbers at Espoo as well with a 2.25 goals-against average and .916 save percentage.

• Finland will rely heavily on their team structure in the gold medal game. They have to play to their strengths defensively and wait for offensive chances to materialize. They don’t have the skill to get into a track meet style of game versus Team USA.

Here’s how Finland’s team stats breakdown heading into the final versus Team USA:

UNITED STATES

• Team USA are defending their gold medal championship for last year and playing their best hockey, as a team, at the end of the tournament.

• The American squad is very deep. They have several layers of players who can impact the game offensively. The entire roster is exceptionally difficult to game plan and match-up against. Their four leading scorers all land in the top 10 of tournament scoring:

• Gabe Perreault, Ryan Leonard and James Hagens play NCAA hockey together, on the same line, at Boston College. They have a built-in advantage of reading and reacting off each other better than most other lines in the tournament.

• Cole Hutson is the younger brother of Lane Hutson (Montreal Canadiens). He’s playing at Boston University. Players like Hutson are flat-out fun to watch. He’s uber-competitive defensively but it’s the way he thinks the game, and executes, offensively that makes him the elite prospect that he is.

Hutson was selected by the Washington Capitals in the second round (43rd overall) last June.

• Only in a tournament like the world juniors do "Terriers" from BU and "Eagles" from BC get along together. They go toe to toe for bragging rights in the Boston region of NCAA hockey.

• Team USA goaltender Trey Augustine got off to a slow start at this year’s tournament. His game looks on point as he looks to win back-to-back gold medals as the No. 1 netminder for his country. His win over Czechia gave him 11 in his world juniors career, surpassing Jack Campbell for most by an American goaltender.

• Defenceman Zeev Buium of Denver University (Minnesota Wild, 12th overall 2024) is one of the leading scorers for defencemen in the NCAA (four goals, 16 assists in 18 games). He’s been a workhorse for Team USA and has contributed two goals and two assists with a plus-eight rating while averaging over 25 minutes per game. He was used in all situations in the semifinal win over Czechia and deployed for an incredible 29:12. To say Team USA leans on Buium as their No. 1 defenceman is an understatement.

• Championships are won on the backs of a team’s most elite players executing to the best of their abilities. But the middle six forwards, or second-pairing defenders, provide a lot of heavy lifting and insulation for winning teams. Team USA forward Danny Nelson looks close to pro ready. He’s a hulking centreman (six-foot-two, 216 pounds) who takes most of Team USA’s key face-offs, leans on opponents physically, plays with attention to detail defensively and has contributed four goals and two assists offensively.

Here's how Team USA’s team stats breakdown into the final versus Team Finland:

PREDICTION

Team Finland will play with structure and empty the tank with their high compete level, but Team USA is too deep and their overall play has improved exponentially since their 4-3 loss to the Finns in the preliminary round.

Team USA defends their gold medal from last year in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Americans come out on top by a score of 5-2.