Czechia beats Sweden 3-2 in a shootout to win bronze at world juniors

OTTAWA — Czechia will head home from the nation’s capital with some new hardware.

Eduard Sale scored in the 14th round of the shootout to lead his country past Sweden 3-2 and claim bronze at the world junior hockey championship Sunday.

The Czech captain beat goaltender Marcus Gidlof on his fifth attempt — and 28th between the teams — with a move to the backhand.

Sale also tied the longest shootout in International Ice Hockey Federation history in the 13th round after Otto Stenberg put Sweden ahead.

“He’s the player you want to have on your team, not against,” Czech netminder Michael Hrabal said. “He’s a born goal-scorer. The whole tournament he showed how good he is.”

Sale and Jakub Stancl scored in regulation for Czechia. Hrabal stopped 32 shots through 65 minutes of action.

David Edstrom replied for Sweden, which got 30 saves from Gidlof.

“It’s tough,” Edstrom said. “It’s small margins. They took the furthest step, which sucks because we wanted that medal.”

Czechia, which settled for silver at the 2023 tournament in Halifax when Canada captured its 20th gold medal before securing bronze last year in Sweden, has now made the podium at three consecutive tournaments for the first time since Czechoslovakia’s dissolution in 1992.

“It’s definitely big,” Hrabal said. “Great players coming up, but just still need to work hard. There’s a brighter future.”

The Czechs, who eliminated Canada for a second straight year in the quarterfinals, opened Sunday’s scoring on the power play — on the game’s first shot — at 3:47 of the first when Stancl one-timed his tournament-leading seventh goal upstairs.

Sweden, which lost to the U.S. in last year’s final on home soil and has just two gold medals all-time at the world juniors, replied on a man advantage at 12:31 when Edstrom deposited a loose puck for his third.

Sale made it 2-1 at 9:27 of the second when he took advantage of a turnover to roof his sixth before Stancl rang a shot off the crossbar.

Victor Eklund hit the post at the other end, but Edstrom connected on a redirection at 15:40 that found iron, hit a television camera inside Sweden’s net and bounced out.

The teams played a clean third and a tepid extra period to set up Sale shootout heroics.

“It’s a great dot on his young career,” Hrabal said of the Seattle Kraken prospect. “Three medals out of three world juniors is incredible. The NHL is waiting for him.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 5, 2025.