{"id":460077,"date":"2025-01-04T09:38:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T14:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=460077"},"modified":"2025-01-04T09:38:01","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T14:38:01","slug":"wjc-predictions-jan-4-united-states-vs-czechia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/04\/wjc-predictions-jan-4-united-states-vs-czechia\/","title":{"rendered":"WJC Predictions: Jan 4 United States vs Czechia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to the return World Junior Predictions. The elite Under-20 showcase features plenty of players that could become NHL superstars. Last Word on Hockey takes a look at the games and breaks down the head-to-head matchups and other factors that play in. We also have a featured game of the day, which is considered must-watch TV. Today\u2019s featured game of WJC Predictions<\/a> is United States vs Czechia. Be sure to check out more WJC predictions in the coming days as the 2025 event continues.<\/p>\n

WJC Predictions<\/h2>\n

Finland vs Sweden<\/h3>\n

Time:<\/strong> 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)<\/p>\n

TV:<\/strong> NHL Network; TSN<\/p>\n

We open WJC predictions with the first semifinal game between Finland and Sweden. The Scandinavian rivals will duke it out for a spot in the gold-medal game on Sunday. Finland did win the last meeting in tournament play with a 5-4 shootout victory.<\/p>\n

The Finns are paced on offence by Nashville Predators<\/a> draft choice Jesse Kiiskinen, who has five points coming into the semifinals. Finland does have a strong goalie in Petteri Rimpinen and his 2.01 goals-against-average and .941 save percentage.<\/p>\n

Sweden is looking to book another trip to the final for the second straight year. Detroit Red Wings<\/a> prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka is tied for the tournament lead in points with nine. Buffalo Sabres<\/a> draftee Anton Wahlberg has also been outstanding in this tournament.<\/p>\n

These games are tough to pick, but Sweden gets a chance to get gold.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Sweden wins 4-2.<\/em><\/p>\n

United States vs Czechia<\/h3>\n

Time:<\/strong> 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)<\/p>\n

TV:<\/strong> NHL Network; TSN<\/p>\n

The featured game of WJC predictions is the United States battling Czechia. We get a rematch of last year’s group play game that the Americans won in a shootout. The winners will play at 7:30 p.m. Sunday night in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

We’ve seen plenty of offence from the defending champions this tournament. Potential top pick James Hagens and Washington Capitals<\/a> prospect Cole Hutson share the team’s lead in points with eight. Red Wings selection Trey Augustine has been solid in goal in recent games.<\/p>\n

Czechia eliminated Canada at the quarterfinal stage for the second straight year in a wild finish. The Czechs are paced by St Louis Blues<\/a> prospect Jakub Stancl and Seattle Kraken<\/a> choice Eduard Sale. However, they also have a solid goalie Michael Hrabal, who is a Utah Hockey Club prospect.<\/p>\n

This should be a heavyweight fight, but the Americans scratch out a win.<\/p>\n

Prediction: United States wins 3-2.<\/em><\/p>\n

Main photo by: David Reginek-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to the return World Junior Predictions. The elite Under-20 showcase features plenty of players that could become NHL superstars. Last Word on Hockey takes a look at the games and breaks down the head-to-head matchups and other factors that play in. We also have a featured game of the day, which is considered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":460078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4547,2,304,4548,3462,309,5744],"tags":[8073,7086,5726,1102,617],"class_list":["post-460077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey","category-featured","category-international-hockey","category-nhl","category-nhl-prospects","category-nhl-top-prospects","category-world-juniors","tag-2025-world-juniors","tag-czechia","tag-team-finland","tag-team-sweden","tag-team-usa"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460079,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460077\/revisions\/460079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}