After a short one-day break, Team Sweden prepares to square off against Germany for their second game of the young World Junior Championship.

The puck is set to drop at 10:30 AM (PST) on Thursday, December 28th.

Sweden, this year’s host team, is coming off a commanding 6-0 victory over Latvia and will look to piggyback off that momentum as their preliminary schedule only gets stiffer from here.

All three Vancouver Canucks prospects had strong showings in their opening game, highlighted by sharpshooter Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s two-goal performance.

Elias Pettersson, shouldering a pivotal shutdown role, led the entire Swedish team in ice time with 21:07 and is anticipated to uphold a similar responsibility in the upcoming clash.

As for Germany, they come in hot, delivering the tournament’s first major upset in a 4-3 defeat over Finland in their opening game on Wednesday. The win marked the first time Germany has beaten Finland in World Junior history, snapping their previous 0-25 record.

They will aim to carry that over and make history for a consecutive game, as Sweden holds a perfect 23-0 record in their head-to-head matchups all-time.

However, don’t count them out just yet.

In their single match in last year’s tournament, Germany gave the Swedes a run for their money, leading to a tight finished 1-0 victory for Sweden.

Unsurprisingly, the critical factor for Germany will be to minimize their time in the penalty box.

Sweden boasts one of the tournament’s more formidable powerplays, as we saw by their three-for-five success rate in their opening match, which can single-handedly decide matches.

Having secured victories in their respective opening games, both teams now hold three points each. The prize for this contest, provided it finishes in regulation, will be to jump to the top of Group A alongside Team Canada.

This serves as a significant motivation for Sweden, as they hope to set the stage for a potential “clash of the titans” scenario against Team Canada on Friday.

Jonathan Lekkerimäki: 1GP | 2G | 0A | 2PTS | +1
Tom Willander: 1GP | 0G | 0A | 0PTS | +2
Elias Pettersson: 1GP | 0G | 0A | 0PTS | +0

Thursday, December 28 @ 10:30 AM (PST) (Germany)
Friday, December 29 @ 10:30 AM (PST) (Canada)
Sunday, December 31 @ 5:00 AM (PST) (Finland)

Make sure to check back after the match for our post-game recap.

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