Benjamin Rautiainen scored with 38 seconds left in overtime as Finland defeated Sweden 4-3 in the first semi-final of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship. The Finns will face the winner of the U.S. Czechia semi-final in Sunday’s gold medal game.

Rautiainen surprised everyone, including Swedish goalie Melker Thelin, when the Tappara Tampere forward fired a bad-angle shot along the ice. It was a power play goal with blueliner Tom Willander serving a holding minor.

"We played as a team," said Finland's Julius Miettinen. "I think we fought hard and deserved to win."

 

In regulation time, Finland's Emil Hemming had a goal and an assist, and Jesse Kiiskinen and Arrttu Alasiurua scored for Finland. Konsta Helenius stepped up with three assists, and Topias Hynninen had two helpers.

"Unbelievable," said Hemming. "I think nobody really thought we'd be in this position. But I'm super-proud of our guys. We're tight as a group and played one helluva game."

Otto Stenberg scored twice and Wilhelm Hallquisth added a single for Sweden, which lost its first game of the tournament at an unfortunate time.

The Finns dominated the second period, but the Swedes came at their Nordic rivals even harder in the third period and most of overtime. Sweden outshot Finland 46-35. Finnish starting goalie Petteri Rimpinen excelled to win his duel with Thelin.

"In the third period we played pretty well," said Stenberg. "We had a lot of chances. I think we should have scored more than one goal in the last period."

The Finns are eager to win their sixth World Junior gold medal of all time. They previously triumphed in 1987, 1998, 2014, 2016, and 2019. Their last medal was silver in 2022, coming with a 3-2 overtime loss to host Canada.

Miettinen talked about how to improve in the final: "I don't think we can turn the puck that much over. We need to keep the inside clean. I thought we gave them a couple of chances. Tomorrow it can't happen."

The Swedes, who took the silver medal last year in Gothenburg with a 6-2 loss to the U.S., will try to capture their eighth bronze medal ever. They have only won gold twice, in 1981 and 2012.

The teams had a cautious start. Finland squandered its first power play with Viggo Gustafsson off for high-sticking, while shots were 10-10 in a scoreless first period.

Stenberg drew first blood for Sweden at 1:22 of the second period. The Malmo Redhawks forward grabbed the puck in the neutral zone, raced down left wing, and zapped a shot high to Rimpinen's short side.

Hemming struck back at 4:32 to end his tournament-long scoring drought. One second after Gustafsson's second high-sticking penalty of the game expired, Helenius set the Barrie Colts attacker up perfectly in tight to beat Thelin over the glove.

About four minutes later, Finnish captain Aron Kiviharju thought he'd put his team ahead when he sneaked a shot under Thelin's right pad, but following a coach's challenge from Sweden's Magnus Havelid, the play was video-reviewed and nullified due to an offside. Undaunted, the Finns kept buzzing around Thelin's net and the Bjorkloven netminder made a fine point-blank stop on Jesse Nurmi.

With Herman Traff off for holding, the Finnish power play clicked. Kiiskinen was perfectly positioned at Thelin's left post to tip in Hynninen's hard pass for a 2-1 lead at 13:28.

Heading into this showdown, the Finnish penalty kill had allowed just one goal. But Sweden made it 2-2 with its top-ranked power play at 18:07. Stenberg's one-timer from the right faceoff circle deflected off Veeti Vaisanen past Rimpinen.

With just 21 seconds left in the second period, Alasiurua cut in from the right side and jammed the puck through Thelin's pads for a 3-2 Finnish lead, fighting off David Edstrom. It was his third goal of these World Juniors and first since the 4-3 overtime win over the Americans. The Finns earned their lead after outshooting Sweden 20-10 in the second.

"The second period was not good," Gustafsson said. "We took too many penalties and they scored. We didn't get any flow."

In the final stanza, Sweden turned the tables with a whopping 20-3 edge in shots. Heavy pressure in search of the equalizer bore fruit at 11:32. Hallquisth's centre point shot squeezed past Rimpinen's arm and trickled in.

Sweden's power play got a glorious chance in sudden death after Nurmi clipped Felix Unger Sorum with a high-stick. Unger Sorum tested Rimpinen twice during the man advantage, but the Finnish goalie denied him with his glove.

"It's always a good feeling to beat Sweden," said Hemming. "It's a rivalry, always."

Looking ahead to Sunday, Gustafsson said: "We need to win the bronze medal tomorrow. That's the only thing we're focused on."

This was the fourth semi-final meeting between Sweden and Finland in World Junior history.

In 2012 in Calgary, Max Friberg’s shootout goal gave Sweden a 3-2 victory. In 2016 in Helsinki, Antti Kalapudas scored the second-period winner as the Finns edged Sweden 2-1. In both those cases, the winning team went on to capture the gold medal.

In the 2022 semi-finals in Edmonton, Kasper Puutio got the lone goal and netminder Juha Jatkola earned a 23-save shutout as Finland defeated Sweden 1-0.