World Juniors 2026: NHL Draft Eligibles Stenberg, McKenna Highlight Standouts From Medal Day

Sweden held off a late attack from Czechia to capture their first world juniors gold medal since 2012 and second in 44 years.

Despite being top-tier contenders nearly every year, the Swedes suffocated the Czechs' chances for most of the gold medal game to push their way to golden glory.

The Canadians rebounded from a difficult semifinal loss to hold off Finland for bronze.

It was a long tournament, but so many of the biggest moments and memorable plays came from the medal round. 

Canada and Finland played a back-and-forth bronze medal game early before Canada pulled out to a three-goal lead early in the second period. Their power play was clicking, with Zayne Parekh and Sam O'Reilly scoring with the man advantage. Michael Hage and Gavin McKenna ended up with four points each in the game. 

Finland pushed back a bit, but Canada handled business, making life easy on themselves by cutting out the bad, untimely penalties and relying on their skill to simply get the puck up ice to generate offensive chances. After a tournament plagued with inconsistent efforts, this was arguably Canada's most complete game. 

The gold medal game looked to be under control by the Swedes, which scored late in the first period and eventually pulled out to a three-goal lead in the third period. Team Czechia doesn't go down without a fight, though. 

With under three minutes to go in the game, Czechia pulled their goalie and scored to get within two goals. Then, two minutes later, they scored again to pull within one. 

They had Sweden on their heels, and they were pressing harder than ever before in the game. Just when it seemed inevitable that Czechia would score, Ivar Stenberg won a race to a loose puck and tucked it into the open net, giving Sweden a 4-2 lead and sealing the game and the gold medal for the Swedes.

Let's look at a few of the standouts from each game on the final day of the world juniors. 

Jack Berglund, C, Sweden

The Swedish captain had his fingerprints all over this game. He had an assist on the shorthanded goal that opened the scoring for Sweden by dancing by the defenders, following up on his own rebound and finding Casper Juustovaara out front. He added another assist on Sweden's second goal, poking a loose puck in the slot to Victor Eklund at the side of the net for a power-play marker. 

It wasn't just the production, though. Berglund was taking hits to make a play, playing smart defensive hockey and constantly putting his team in a positive position. 

Berglund wasn't the star of this team – they had Anton Frondell, Victor Eklund and Ivar Stenberg to take on that role. But Berglund was the heartbeat of the Swedes, leading them to a gold medal by setting the tone on every shift. 

Love Harenstam, G, Sweden

Throughout this tournament, Harenstam has been good but not great. He's done enough to help Sweden win all of their games, but he's not had a standout performance. 

The gold medal game was his bestof the tournament, although it helped that the Swedish team in front of him severely limited the chances that Czechia generated until the very end of the game. 

A Czech flurry toward the end of the second period when the score was 2-0 stands out as Harenstam made three massive saves, including a beautiful glove save where he exploded laterally to catch the puck, leaning back and resting his head on the side of the net. 

Harenstam allowed the Swedes to stay in control of the game, holding off the feisty Czech squad every time they seemed to get a bit of momentum. 

Despite the two goals allowed in the final minutes of the game, Harenstam once again did enough for the Swedes to capture the gold medal. He was also named to the tournament all-star team by the media.

Sometimes, just enough is exactly what you need and Harenstam always found a way to do just enough. 

Tomas Galvas, D, Czechia

The undrafted defender was all over the ice, generating chances as a playmaker offensively and killing play with his skating and an active stick defensively. He was such a massive topic of conversation at this tournament because, despite his size, he was one of Czechia's most reliable defenders and arguably their most dynamic creator. 

Galvas was the heart and soul of this team in many ways. He stepped up when they needed someone to in just about every game this tournament. He was fantastic in this game despite not being able to will his squad to a gold medal. 

Galvas may not be happy about the silver medal right now, but he's a major part of this historic era of Czech hockey, with two bronze and a silver in his trophy case.

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Adam Jiricek, D, Czechia 

All night it felt like Jiricek was about to break through despite the Swedes bottling up the Czech attack most of the game. He hit a post early in this game, and he was buzzing all night long. When the Czech squad was pushing, Jiricek was all over the ice, scoring their first goal to get them going and then creating chance after chance to keep the pressure on. He didn’t get an assist on the second Czech goal, but his mobility and fluidity as a playmaker was a major factor in setting up the goal. 

Jiricek was a physical presence in the defensive zone as well. It was Jiricek’s persistence and constant desire to step up that kept Czechia in this game.

Despite being down the entire game, it never felt like the Czech squad was out of it because of players like Jiricek's best efforts to push back against the Swedes.

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Ivar Stenberg, LW, Sweden

The NHL draft-eligible winger got better each game throughout the tournament, elevating his game as the stakes rose. He was Sweden's most impressive forward in this game, setting up two goals with his gravitational possession game. 

His first assist came on the power play, as his rebound was poked over to Eklund by Berglund for a goal after a number of silky smooth plays that didn't wind up in the net. 

His second assist came when Stenberg collected the puck in his own end, burst up ice before setting up Sascha Boumedienne for a beautiful goal. 

At the end of the game, it was Stenberg chasing down the loose puck and scoring the empty-netter to kill the Czech momentum at the end of the game. 

When Stenberg has the puck, everyone on the opposing team is pulled in, and that opens up passing lanes where he can get his teammates the puck. When he is given even the smallest bit of space, he attacks it head-on and generates a chance for himself. 

Stenberg was also a factor defensively in this game, using his work ethic to get to pucks and disrupt play. 

Stenberg's all-around impact from defense to transition to offense is why he's slowly becoming more commonly discussed among the players who could go first overall in the 2026 NHL draft. 

Gavin McKenna, LW, Canada

The bronze medal match was easily McKenna's best game for Canada at the World Junior Championship. With Canada controlling play for much of the game, McKenna was able to focus on what he does best – generating offensive chances. His skill and vision have been absolutely unreal on the power play, and that continued today, but his play at 5-on-5 was as good as it's been all tournament long. 

McKenna ended up as one of the top scorers at the world juniors this year, but the vast majority of it came on the power play, and his play away from the puck has become a bigger conversation. 

Finishing this tournament on a winning note with a very solid game individually was important for him. A goal and three assists were an excellent way to finish strong.

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Michael Hage, C, Canada

The Canadians' top player and leading scorer throughout this tournament was the primary play-driver from start to finish. His speed and downhill play made him difficult to defend. His power-play prowess has been lethal. This game had all of that and more. Hage finished with four assists, three primary, as he helped Canada capture bronze. 

Hage set the pace in this game. Every time he was on the ice, he asserted himself as the most effective. The Montreal Canadiens prospect had a great game to finish off his tournament. There was an injury scare after an awkward collision and fall to the ice, but Hage returned and continued to push the Canadian attack. 

Aron Kiviharju, D, Finland 

This certainly wasn't the result that Finland wanted, and Kiviharju didn't find his way onto the scoresheet, but the two-way game that he played was noticeable. The Minnesota Wild prospect was playing really solid positional defense, using his instincts to put himself in position to turn pucks over and get moving the other way. 

When the game was on the line, and the Finns were trying to get back even, Kiviharju began dictating play as the Finns ran their offense through him. Kiviharju was getting down the wall or playing below the goal line on the power play, looking to use his passing ability to generate chances.

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