The 50th annual World Junior Championships were going to be different for Canada this year. After back-to-back quarterfinal exits viewed as something of a national catastrophe in a hockey-mad country, 2026 was a chance for the favored power to return to the top of the heap.

It has been different, but not in the way Canada had hoped. It lost to the Czech Republic, 6-4, Sunday in the semifinals at the Grand Casino Arena, which might have been 25 percent full for the clash. Tomas Poletin scored the winning goal with a minute remaining and his team added an empty-net tally before celebrating wildly.

The result sent the Czechs, bronze medalists the last two years and now responsible for three consecutive Canadian exits, into Monday’s gold-medal game against Sweden, an overtime victor against Finland in Sunday’s earlier semifinal. Canada, which won the last of its 20 WJC championships in 2023, faces Finland for the bronze.

“It’s the same feeling,” said Canadian star Gavin McKenna, who could be the first pick in June’s NHL draft. “You come all this way and don’t get any opportunities to throw on the flag. Letting your country down sucks.”

Czechia’s Maxmilian Curran began the winning play with a shot from between the circles. It appeared headed wide left before caroming into the net off Poletin’s skate as he was spun around by a defender. Poletin was facing away from the net when the deflection occurred, so the goal was allowed to stand.

“Those bounces are going to happen, and unfortunately we were on the wrong end of it,” said Canadian captain Porter Martone, whose team lost top-six forward Brady Martin to an upper-body injury partway through the night. “It was a pretty crazy ending, but that’s what junior hockey is. I wish we could have controlled that game better and slowed it down.”

Said Czech coach Patrick Augusta: “I’d say we were a little more hungry. Our guys showed a lot of character and will to beat them.”

The third period featured five goals, including an empty-net tally in the final seconds. The Czechs led, 3-2, at the stanza’s start, but Canada’s Cole Reschny scooted across the top of the crease and jammed the puck inside the far post to deadlock the game four minutes after the second intermission.

Five minutes later, Czech forward Vojtech Cihar powered around defenseman Caleb Desnoyers from the right wing and chipped a shot past goaltender Jack Ivankovic (31 saves) and under the crossbar at the near post. Canada didn’t help itself by taking two penalties within a minute not long after, although it killed off both fouls.

Canada pulled into a 4-4 tie with three minutes remaining. A shot from center point struck a stick in front and caromed to Martone, who scored at the right post.

The teams brought premade animosity into the game, not just from medal-round meetings the last two years, but from Canada’s 7-5 victory in pool play earlier in the current tournament. The Czechs felt they paid for being too reactive and were determined not to repeat their mistake.

“They try to get in our heads and trash talk and cross check you after the whistles,” said forward Adam Novotny. “But you have to show you’re a grown player and you’re not going to do something stupid.

“Those small things win you the game. You have to go to the net and take the punch.”

The Czech Republic had five power plays to Canada’s three. McKenna was assessed a 10-minute misconduct after the empty-net goal for verbal abuse of the officials.

Martone wasn’t willing to blame the men in stripes.

“You can talk all you want about the officiating, but if we’d really wanted to win that game, we could have found a way,” he said. “Obviously there were some calls we thought didn’t go the way they should have.”

Canada opened the scoring during the 16th minute on a power play set up by a goaltender interference penalty. A scramble resulted in Michael Misa being able to feed the puck from slightly below the left side of the goal line to atop the crease. Tij Iginla scored there despite the adjacent but inefficient presence of defenseman Jakub Fibigr.

The Czechs equalized two minutes later, their aggressive forecheck causing Canadian defenseman Braeden Cootes to hurriedly rid himself of the puck in the left corner. The biscuit bounced behind the net and out to the top of the opposite circle, from where Tomas Galvas unloaded a backhand shot.

Ivankovic kicked the effort onto the stick of Curran, standing to the left of the crease. The forward partially fanned on his own shot, the effect being a sort of changeup, drifting under Ivankovic.

“That was the key to our game, the forecheck and positional play,” said Augusta said. “We didn’t want to give them odd-man rushes with chipping the puck out and flying. We were very careful tonight and I think it worked.”

The Czech Republic went up, 2-1, early in the second period. Adam Titlbach popped a shot from between the circles and under the crossbar after receiving Max Psenicka’s backhand pass from the right circle.

The Czechs took consecutive penalties 21 seconds apart midway through the middle stanza. Canada took advantage, Zayne Parekh firing off the glove of netminder Michal Orsulak from the right circle.

Canada’s Samuel Drancak was awarded a penalty shot two minutes before the second intermission. Orsulak stopped the attempt but tripped Drancak, so a second try was ordered. Orsulak denied that one as well.

“He kept us in it and won us the game eventually,” said forward Vaclav Nestrasil, one of 17 players on his team who skate for Canadian junior clubs. “I hugged him and told him nice job and hopefully he’ll reset and do it again tomorrow as well.”

Said Augusta: “It was a very tough moment for us and the game could have gotten away from us. But our guys’ heads weren’t down. That’s not common and this team has it.”

Forty-three seconds before the break, Curran and Adam Benak broke in 2 on 1 with diving Canadian backchecker Sam O’Reilly too late to stop a lateral pass from the former to the latter. He smacked home a one-time shot from the right circle.

“You don’t win every game in hockey and you have to handle it like a pro,” said Martone, whose team met Czechia in the medal round for a fifth consecutive WJC. “It’s obviously a tough pill to swallow, but we’re still going for a medal tomorrow.”

Sweden 4, Finland 3 (shootout)

The Scandinavian foes played their ninth consecutive game decided by one goal or less, Anton Frondell scoring the deciding goal through Finnish goaltender Petteri Rimpinen’s legs in the shootout’s eighth round.

Finland, which eliminated the United States in the quarterfinals, couldn’t capitalize on a power play during the 3-on-3 overtime. Rimpinen made 23 saves and his Swedish counterpart, Love Harenstam, 31.

Sweden hasn’t won a WJC title since 2012 and has only done so twice since the official event began in 1977. It lost to the U.S. in the 2024 title game.

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