Takeaways: Canada slays quarterfinal dragon with dominant win

Don’t look now, but Canada might just be back.

After being bounced in the quarterfinals in back-to-back years, Canada entered Friday’s knockout round with a single focus: slay that dragon.

That they did. And then some.

Realistically, though, the game was put away in the first period. Back-to-back goals from Cole Reschny and Tij Iginla — just 44 seconds apart — marked the beginning of the end for Slovakia, who allowed three more goals to Michael Misa, Sam O’Reilly and Brady Martin before the first buzzer sounded. Coming back from a five-goal deficit is tough enough, let alone against a Canadian team that has proven its firepower this tournament.

Slovakia got one back, a snipe from the left faceoff dot from Jan Chovan late in the second period, but when all was said and done, Canada put up seven goals in their most dominant showing in a knockout round in three years.

Frankly speaking, Canada finally did what Canada is expected to do in this tournament.

Here are more takeaways from the red-and-white’s 7-1 quarterfinal win over Slovakia.

Classic offensive dominance

After Canada followed up a goals-fest against Czechia with a narrow 2-1 overtime win against Latvia, there were, rightfully, concerns about whether or not this team would break Canada’s two-year-long goal-scoring curse.

Really, we just needed to trust the process.

Save for that Latvia game, Canada has scored seven or more goals in each showing this tournament, putting up touchdown-plus numbers against Czechia, Denmark and Finland, before doing it again Friday night.

From the first drop of the puck, Canada was flying and constantly attacking. They held Slovakia to zero shots until midway through the first, and spent a whopping 9:30 in the offensive zone through the opening frame to Slovakia’s 5:46.

Canada has now put up 32 goals at these world juniors — more than double their total from last tournament — while surrendering just 12 against.

“We’re playing together, working the puck around,” head coach Dale Hunter said after the game. “As a coach, we always want to shoot a little more and not look for the perfect play, but the guys up front are playing together as linemates and it’s working well.”

On Friday night, the Canadians peppered Slovak goalie Alan Lendak with 43 shots, with three of their seven goals coming off rebounds, proving that good things happen when the puck goes to the net.

The semifinals will be their biggest test yet, but if Canada can keep that mindset heading into Sunday, they’ll be a tough team to beat.

It’s not just that Canada was dominating — it’s how they were doing it.

Fifteen skaters registered a point on Friday night, including 14 in the first period alone, and five had multiple on the evening. It’s not just top performers collecting points (though they are doing that too), but Canada also saw contributions from up and down the lineup.

That included, notably, a pair of assists from draft-eligible Keaton Verhoeff, who made his mark on Friday’s game despite beginning the tournament as a healthy scratch. He’s not putting up points the same way that Gavin McKenna has been as a forward playing in his second tournament, but the presumptive top-five prospect has managed a point-per-game in his first world juniors (three assists in three games).

Defenceman Zayne Parekh is also making history for Canada, becoming just the seventh Canadian blueliner to record 10 or more points in a world juniors. He’ll hold the record for most of any Canadian defenceman with just two more points, which feels inevitable given he’s leading tournament scoring with four goals and six assists in five games.

In fact, after Friday’s rout, Canada has four of the tournament’s top-10 leading scorers, with Parekh and McKenna leading the way, and with Porter Martone and Cole Beaudoin sitting just outside at 11 and 12, respectively.

“We’ve been saying all tournament long, if we’re going to win a gold medal, we’re going to have to do it by committee,” Martone, Canada’s captain, said post-game. “All four lines are going to have to contribute, and that’s what happened here tonight. We’re not a one-trick pony, everyone is chipping in and that’s huge going into Sunday.”

Special teams continue to perform

Perhaps one of their biggest improvements this year, aside from the aforementioned goal scoring, is their special-teams game.

Though Canada was held to just one power-play goal on three attempts Friday night, their stats on the man-advantage have been frankly absurd this tournament, going 8-for-17 and operating at 47.06 per cent — though it was around the 50 per cent mark before Friday.

Similarly, Canada has allowed just one power-play goal against across 12 attempts, second in the tournament at 91.67 per cent, but now first amongst still-eligible teams. Only Switzerland had the better penalty kill at 93.75 per cent.

Granted, Canada has been more disciplined this tournament and has been short-handed for 25:44 across five games, but their penalty kill has delivered when needed — including on Friday.

Parekh took a double-minor penalty for high-sticking late in the third period, and though the game was functionally finished by that point, Canada still wasn’t looking to make this showing any closer than it needed to be.

So the red-and-white penalty killers went to work, dutifully killing all four minutes of Slovakia’s man-advantage, while also not taking any risks that could potentially damage availability heading into the semis.

Goaltender Jack Ivankovic, who got the nod over Carter George despite playing just one game this tournament, was significantly less busy than Lendak but played well all the same, stopping all short-handed shots he faced and finishing with 21 saves on 22 shots.

Canada, U.S. rivalry on pause

The United States’ two-year reign over the world juniors has come to an end, and they were eliminated without playing their cross-border rival once.

Just minutes before puck drop on the Canada-Slovakia quarterfinals, Finland upset the Americans 4-3 in overtime, capping a thrilling, back-and-forth showdown that saw the host country eliminated in the quarterfinals for the second year in a row.

Though this makes Canada’s road to the gold slightly easier, it also marks the second time in three years that the maple leaf hasn’t met the red-white-and-blue at the world juniors.

Since Canada and the U.S. compete in separate groups, they’ve faced each other just three times in the past five tournaments, with the Americans going 2-1 in that span.

The rivalry will have to wait another year.

Canada to face familiar foe in semis

Though they did open their 2026 tournament with a redemption win, Canada has not beat Czechia in the knockout round since 2023 in Halifax.

Now they have the opportunity for real revenge when the stakes are highest — with a chance to compete for gold on the line.

As Canada knows too well, Czechia is not to be taken lightly. Even their round-robin game on Boxing Day was a loose, back-and-forth affair that Canada likely doesn’t want to repeat when the chance at a gold medal is on the line.

Canada’s gotten better as the tournament progressed, and Czechia holds three top-10 scorers and will want to firmly cement their place among the junior-hockey juggernauts.

It all goes down Sunday night.