Sam O’Reilly, Braeden Cootes and Zayne Parekh scored for Canada as they lead Finland 3-2 after the first period of the bronze medal game at the 2026 World Juniors.
Arttu Valila and Julius Miettinen replied for Finland in the opening 20 minutes.
O’Reilly opened the scoring just 1:10 into the opening frame when he collected a goal-front pass from Michael Hage and used a nice move to slide the puck past Petteri Rimpinen in Finland’s net.
Valila responded for Finland just over two minutes later, snapping his team’s first shot of the game past Carter George, Canada’s starting goaltender.
Cootes restored Canada’s lead 1:34 after the Valila marker, beating the Finnish goalkeeper with a quick strike from the slot.
Parekh took the first penalty of the game, a holding infraction at 10:22 and Miettinen took advantage on the power play, firing the puck home from the half boards to tie the game 2-2.
Parekh got the lead back for Canada, scoring on the power play at 18:41 after Lasse Boelius was called for cross-checking.
Canada is aiming to capture the bronze and avoid leaving the World Juniors without a medal for the third consecutive tournament.
Canada’s shot at gold ended at the hands of Czechia thanks to a 6-4 loss in the semi-finals.
Finland dropped their semi-final matchup 4-3 to Sweden in a shootout.
Canada defeated Finland 7-4 when the teams met on Boxing Day in the final game of the preliminary round for both teams.
