We're now at the halfway stage of the group stage of the 2026 World Juniors, with all ten teams having played two of their four group games.
As of this halfway point, it's the United States leading the way in Group A, with Sweden, Slovakia, and Switzerland taking up the remaining three knockout-round places. In Group B, it's Finland with a one-point lead on Canada, with Czechia and Latvia rounding out the top four.
And after a Sunday that saw just two round-robin games played, Monday will once again see a full four-game slate played. It all starts at noon CST as Sweden takes on Germany at the Grand Casino Arena, before Czechia and Finland play a crucial Group B game at 2:30 PM CST. Then, it's the United States taking on Slovakia at 5:00 PM CST, before Canada and Denmark play each other to round out Monday's action; puck drop in that game is set for 7:30 CST.
Let's take a look at the four games set for Monday's action.
Sweden vs. Germany
Of the gold medal contenders, I think Sweden needs to be on high alert. Blowing a 2-0 lead against Slovakia to open the tournament? Okay, I kind of get that; Slovakia has had a history of putting up challenges against medal contenders.
But the Swedes' game against Switzerland wasn't a masterclass in any sense of the word either. While they did score three times in the third period, the Swedes did trail 2-1 after two.
While Germany isn't going to be the toughest opposition for Sweden, the Germans did make life tough for Slovakia. But in a game as close as the one Germany just contested against Slovakia (it was closer than the 4-1 scoreline may suggest), one must convert the chances they get, and Germany did not do that at all against the Slovaks.
Even then, Germany did improve slightly from their first game to their second, and I think that will be the case once again against Sweden. If Germany can score a couple of times to open the game, they should be able to put pressure on Sweden and potentially earn a point. That said, Sweden should ultimately win this game, but I think it's reasonable for viewers to ask questions of this Swedish entry should they be unable to put the game away.
The pick: Sweden 3, Germany 2
Czechia vs. Finland
I think this is more of a must-win for Czechia than it is for Finland.
Say what you will about Finland and their unbeaten start to the tournament (I personally think that the Finns are the most complete team on the ice at this moment), but Czechia is in an interesting spot. Despite winning their most recent game against Denmark by a score of 7-2, they dropped their opener against Canada 7-5. Considering the two multi-goal performances, Czechia does indeed look like a team that can score at will.
But defensively? To say the least, it's a little concerning. After two games, Czechia has given up nine goals, with seven of them coming against Canada in their tournament-opener. That's the third-most goals given up by a team this tournament (Latvia and Denmark have conceded the most with ten and thirteen goals given up respectively).
Sure, it's the first two games, but Czechia has excelled on the defensive end of the ice in recent editions of the World Juniors. Even if Czechia is capable of scoring multiple goals a game, giving up seven a game to some of the tournament's top teams isn't the most promising sign of a run to the gold medal game.
The Czechs will have a chance to improve on defence against a Finnish side that just throttled Latvia 8-0. As Finland arguably looks like the best team through the preliminary round's first half, this should be a good litmus test for Czechia as they look towards the knockouts.
Czechia should at least be able to slow the Finnish offence down, and I could see a way in which they can keep pace. But until the defence puts up a signature performance like in tournaments past, I don't exactly have a lot of justification to take the Czechs in big tournament games. I'm picking Finland to win this and keep up their pursuit of the top spot in Group B.
The pick: Finland 5, Czechia 3
United States vs. Slovakia
The United States' start to the World Juniors can be seen as a tale of two games.
The Americans would start their tournament with a dominant 6-3 victory over Germany; however, this was followed up by a closely-fought 2-1 victory over the Swiss, who actually came quite close to forcing the Americans to overtime.
Nonetheless, the United States are unbeaten to start group play, and they'll look to make it three wins out of three when they take on a determined-but-mistake-prone Slovakia side.
Personally, if the Americans win this game, I don't think it will be by more than one goal. Slovakia has proven they're capable of hanging with tournament contenders (courtesy of their two-goal comeback against Sweden) in addition to getting the wins they need (as proven by their 4-1 win over Germany on Saturday). And if Slovakia plays as hard as they did on Friday and Saturday, they should get a result out of this game.
That said, simple mistakes have cost Slovakia throughout the tournament thus far; not only did they take the form of needless penalties against Sweden, but the Slovaks also suffered from an entire second-period littered by missed opportunities by a potent German offence. Had Germany even converted a few of those chances, I would have been talking about a far different result for Slovakia against Germany.
If the goaltending continues to perform for Slovakia and if the team can clean up the mistakes, better performance will certainly result. And even though the Americans will convert more chances than Germany and therefore end up doing enough to win this game, I think Slovakia will get this game into overtime.
The pick: United States 4, Slovakia 3
Denmark vs. Canada
So I guess Latvia has figured Canada out?
Despite entering their third of four group games unbeaten, things haven't exactly been peaches and cream for the Canadians. Sure, the offence looks great, but the overall results haven't been that. Their first game of the tournament was a victory against newfound rivals Czechia, however it was a back-and-forth affair that ended in a 7-5 scoreline. And despite leading 1-0 for much of their second game against Latvia, Canada was once again figured out by the Latvians, who were able to ride a strong goaltending performance and a late Rudolfs Berzkalns goal to a point in their first game of the tournament. Canada did end up winning 2-1 in overtime, however that dropped point could be extremely significant when all is said and done (Canada does play Finland in their final group game).
The Canadians will look to at least stay on the same page as Finland when they take on a Danish side that lost each of their first two games by hefty margins; their first game was a 6-2 loss to Finland, while the second was a 7-2 decision in favour of Czechia.
While Denmark has to pick up a point either here against Canada or on December 30th against Latvia, a result against Latvia looks to be far more likely than one against Canada. That said, Canada may have an eye on their New Year's Eve encounter with Finland, which could open the door for Denmark to make this a closer contest in some form. Whether it's a third-period surge in goalscoring or an early surprise, any lack in focus on the part of Canada for the aforementioned reasons could be an opportunity for Denmark.
Even then, save for decent first periods against Czechia and Finland, Denmark hasn't exactly been the best team at this World Juniors. And barring a result against Latvia, it's looking increasingly likely that the Danes are going to end up playing a relegation-round game against the last-place team in Group A.
While I do think Denmark will have their moments once again, Canada should win this game with relative ease.
The pick: Canada 6, Denmark 3