GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Veit Oswald scored twice, including the eventual game-winning goal, as Germany upset Finland 4-3 at the World Junior Hockey Championship on Wednesday.
Oswald entered the net alone after Finnish defenseman Jesse Pulkinen lost strength on the ice and fell. The German forward tipped the puck past goaltender Niklas Kokko with 5:22 left in the second period and then hung on with his teammates.
Finland outscored Germany 17-5 in the third period, but could not find the back of the net.
Roman Köchter and Niklas Hübner also scored, and Philipp Dietl made 40 saves (1-0) for Germany, who defeated Finland for the first time in the tournament. Since the first championship in 1977, Finland has a 25-0 record against Germany, with a goal difference of 141-31.
Tomi Manisto, Kasper Harutunen and Sam Bou scored for Finland (0-2). Cocco stopped 24 shots on net.
Macklin Celebrini had one goal and four assists as Canada defeated Latvia.
Celebrini’s five points were two points shy of the Canadian team’s single-game record at the world juniors, which was held by six players, including Connor Bedard, at last year’s Halifax tournament. Connor Geekie and Carson Rehkopp each added two goals.
The 17-year-old Celebrini, the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, collected a great pass and made a backhand move at 10:56 before scoring on a breakaway to give Canada a 5-0 lead. gave the lead. He picked up Canada’s ninth and fifth goal, with Matthew Poitras scoring with nine minutes left in regulation time.
Rinars Feldbergs conceded seven goals to an inferior Latvian national team, losing their first match against Sweden 6-0. Axel Ozols was replaced by a teammate early in the third period.
Canada, aiming to win the gold medal for the third consecutive year at this tournament, improved to 4-0 against Latvia with a total score of 41-4.
Adam Gajan stopped all 36 shots as Slovakia defeated Switzerland.
Samuel Honcek gave Slovakia a 2-0 lead, 1-0, before Peter Lepczyk and Servac Petrovski added goals from the air in the final two minutes of the game. Alessio Beglieri stopped 17 shots for Switzerland (0-1).
Jiri Klić and Eduardo Sale each scored a hat-trick in the Czech Republic’s rout of Norway.
Ales Cech and Matthias Sapovaliv scored additional goals for the Czech Republic (1-1). Johannes Rockeberg was the only scorer for Norway (0-2).