With just two games on the world junior slate on Sunday, it was only fitting that they were as close to polar opposite as two could be.
In Minneapolis to start the day, it was Sweden and Switzerland, who faced off in a surprisingly tight affair that saw the Swiss take Tre Kronor to the brink, before an empty-net insurance marker capped the 4-2 win for Sweden.
Then in St. Paul, Finland dished out the first true blowout we’ve seen so far this tournament, ripping Latvia 8-0.
It’s a testament to the newfound parity at this tournament that it took until Day 3 to see a true top-to-bottom dominant performance. Granted, gold-medal favourites like Canada, U.S., Sweden and Finland all remain undefeated, but it’s the showings of underdogs like Switzerland, and Latvia on Saturday, that have made once one-sided games much more interesting.
Here are some more takeaways from Day 3 of the 2026 world juniors.
Switzerland comes to compete
‘Moral victories’ mean little in hockey if your team doesn’t actually leave the ice with the W in hand, but even with the loss on Sunday, Switzerland should be proud of the performance it dished out against a powerhouse Sweden squad.
The 4-2 final score does not do justice to the compete-level between the two teams, nor does it accurately reflect just how tight the game was up until the dying minutes of the third period. In fact, the Swiss forced Tre Kronor to play from behind for the very first time this tournament.
With Switzerland down early in the game after a first-shot, first-minute goal from Eric Nilson, they kept it tight, with Beni Waidacher providing the answer for Switzerland in the final minutes of the first period.
Then, a blink-and-you-missed-it snipe from draft-eligible Lars Steiner gave Switzerland its first lead of the tournament and forced Sweden to rethink its strategy against its pesky opponents.
A tying goal from Viggo Bjorck and a go-ahead snipe from Lucas Pettersson gave the lead back to Sweden, but it wasn’t until Pettersson iced the empty-net killer that it really felt the game was over.
Though Switzerland is 0-2 at the tournament and stares down a must-win game against Germany on Tuesday, it has made it a pattern to be a thorn in the side of technically superior opponents.
On Saturday night against back-to-back champ U.S., the Swiss came within a shot of stealing a point from the Americans by forcing overtime. They held the U.S. off the scoresheet in both the first and third period, and at one point had the game tied.
As we’ve seen Czechia rise through the world junior ranks to become back-to-back bronze medallists — taking down Canada twice in the process — we could be looking at the start of a similar trajectory for the Swiss hockey program.
Lucas Pettersson provides some heroics
After a nail-biter of a tournament-opener on Friday against Slovakia, Sweden would have probably preferred a more easy-going game against Switzerland to help bolster its position in Group A.
Alas, its opponents weren’t going quietly and Sweden needed a hero to stave off a Swiss upset victory.
Enter Anaheim Ducks prospect Lucas Pettersson to bring the heroics.
With Sweden tied up at 3 apiece in the third period and looking to win the game in regulation, Liam Danielsson took advantage of a rare defensive-zone turnover from the Swiss and found Pettersson all alone at the right face-off dot. The 19-year-old then made no mistake in sniping the puck past Elijah Neuenschwander to put Sweden up a goal.
Equally important was his empty-net marker at the end of the third period to ice the game as Switzerland made a 6-on-5 push.
Meanwhile, after combining for two goals and two assists against Slovakia on Friday, Ivar Stenberg and Anton Frondell were held to just one assist each.
Frondell, taken third-overall at the 2025 draft, managed a secondary assist on Bjorck’s tying goal, while Stenberg, a potential top-five pick at the 2026 draft, assisted on the empty-netter. Both players sit tied for 15th in tournament scoring after two games.
Finland puts together dominant performance
From five minutes after puck drop to the final horn of the third period, this was a straight beat-down from Finland.
You should never count an opponent down and out, but Latvia looked completely overmatched against Finland, who out-shot their European opponents 41-7.
For an example of just how dominant the Lions were against Latvia, consider the sequence that led up to their fifth goal of the night in the second period. Joona Saarelainen beat Latvian goalie Mikus Vecvanags after 86 seconds of sustained offensive zone time. That came after Latvia had a short, neutral-zone clear, which followed another minute of O-zone time from Finland.
Spending that much time in the offensive zone, especially as a team with as much firepower as Finland, is bound to pay dividends, and it did — eight times.
How’s this for depth, too: Finland had 14 different skaters with a point and seven skaters with multiple, and saw six different goal-scorers. After Sunday’s game, three Finns are in the top-10 in tournament scoring.
With back-to-back games against Canada and Finland — two odds-on favourites to take home a medal — nobody should blame Latvia for laying an egg on Sunday.
But after taking Canada to the brink on Saturday afternoon, coming just a shot away from their second consecutive upset against the red-and-white, it’s clear they came into Sunday’s tilt against heavyweight Finland with very little gas in the tank.
This Latvian squad looked little like the one we saw Saturday as it allowed Finland entry into its zone with ease, allowed the Finns to hem it down with extended offensive-zone time, and allowed six even-strength goals — six more than it allowed Canada.
If it wasn’t obvious by its play on the ice that Latvia simply lost steam against Finland, just look at the scoresheet — Finland scored more goals and had more skaters with a point than Latvia had shots.
Latvia has a much-needed off-day on Monday before it takes the ice Tuesday to face Denmark.
