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By Brady Trettenero in News
Published:
The 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship gets underway with a marquee matchup between hockey powerhouses Canada and Finland on Thursday, December 26th at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. Puckdrop is scheduled for 7:30 PM EST on the NHL Network.
The host Canadians enter the tournament as +130 favorites to capture gold after a disappointing quarterfinal exit last year. Finland sits at +1100 odds after finishing fourth in 2024. Canada is a heavy -358 favorite on the moneyline in this opening game, with the total set at 6.5 goals.
How should you bet on this preliminary-round clash between Canada and Finland?
Canada is heavy -258 moneyline favorites, giving the red and white an implied win probability of 78.2%.
The Canadians are also -1.5 on the puck line at a much better +155 price. This would mean, however, that Canada has to win by at least two goals for this bet to cash.
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Hockey Canada brought in veteran coach Dave Cameron to lead the charge after last year’s early exit. Cameron, who guided Canada to silver in 2011 and gold in 2022, will count on an old-school approach to get the most out of this talented group.
Canada boasts four returning players in Easton Cowan, Carson Rehkopf, Brayden Yager and Oliver Bonk. Yager, coming off a WHL championship with Moose Jaw, will captain the squad.
But the player to watch is 17-year-old phenom Gavin McKenna, who lit up the pre-tournament with two goals in three games, including the winner against Czechia.
Gavin McKenna showing off his silky mitts! 😎🔥#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/OXY9GXLiMC
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 20, 2024
The eighth-youngest player in Canada’s national junior team history, McKenna has been a dominant force all season with Medicine Hat in the WHL. The Whitehorse native already has plenty of international experience, too, starring at the U18 Worlds and Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
Canada went undefeated in exhibition play, outscoring opponents 14-5. Carter George appears to have earned the starting goalie job after a solid pre-tournament. The hosts will be rested and ready to go in their Boxing Day opener.
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While not quite as deep as Canada, Finland returns a strong veteran contingent from last year’s fourth-place squad. Forwards Konsta Helenius, Emil Hemming and Rasmus Kumpulainen are all back, as are defensemen Emil Pieniniemi and Kalle Kangas.
Finland will rely heavily on Helenius and Hemming, their two first-round NHL draft picks, to generate offense. Helenius has put up strong numbers as a rookie in the AHL with Rochester this year. Hemming has been over a point-per-game player with Barrie in the OHL.
Five #OHL players will represent Finland at the 2025 #WorldJuniors in Ottawa.
DETAILS 🇫🇮: https://t.co/kZWhPPJmUk pic.twitter.com/dH7D8bCzYD
— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) December 25, 2024
The Finns started pre-tournament play with an impressive 6-1 win over Slovakia before dropping their finale 5-2 to the United States. Top goalie prospect Kim Saarinen got some valuable experience in that game and will likely battle Petteri Rimpinen for the starting job.
Finland has some high-end talent but may not have the depth to match Canada over 60 minutes. They’ve had Canada’s number before though, eliminating them in the 2019 quarterfinals and taking them to overtime in the 2022 gold medal game. Never count out the pesky Finns.
Canada and Finland have a storied history at the World Juniors, with the Canadians owning a 27-10-6 all-time record. That mark improves to 13-1 when playing on home ice. The most recent Canadian-hosted meeting was the thrilling 2022 gold medal game that saw Kent Johnson score in overtime.
Both teams can score in bunches, as evidenced by Canada racking up 14 goals in their first three pre-tournament games and Finland posting nine goals in their two exhibition contests. And while the Canadians and Finns both boast some solid defensive prospects, there should still be plenty of offensive opportunities to go around.
Canada scored four or more goals in two of their three pre-tournament games, including hanging 7 on Switzerland in their opening tune-up match. Finland also has a track record of high-scoring affairs, with only two of their seven games at last year’s World Juniors falling short of the 6.5 goal mark.
Rather than lay the heavy -358 price on the Canada moneyline, take this game to be a higher-scoring, back-and-forth affair, with Canada’s dynamic offense being the difference. The over 6.5 goals at -125 odds is the play in this opening matchup.
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Lead NHL & NCAAF Editor
Brady is the lead NHL and College Football editor at Sports Betting Dime, where he specializes in betting odds and data-driven analysis. Brady has over 10 years experience working in sports media, with work published by outlets such as ESPN, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and Fox Sports.
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