2022 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship semi-final preview

The semi-finals at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship will get underway on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET when the hosts, Canada take on Czechia, while at 8 p.m. ET, it's a battle of Scandinavia between Finland and Sweden.

After a shaky start to their quarter-final game against Switzerland, Canada dug in, scoring four times in the first period to chase Swiss netminder Noah Patenaude. Led by Logan Stankoven, who had a pair of goals and an assist, Canada was able to take down Switzerland by a score of 6-3, but it wasn't all good news for the hosts.

Ottawa Senators prospect Ridly Greig was injured following a hit late in the first period. He left for the locker room and did not return, but there hasn't been any update from Hockey Canada on his status for Friday's semi-final as of yet, but the 20-year-old wasn't at practice on Friday.

As for Czechia, coming off an upset loss to Latvia, they needed to bounce back in a big way and they did just that. Buffalo Sabres prospect Jiri Kulich had a three-point game to lead his country to a massive upset win over the United States.

Czechia netminder Tomas Suchanek has been fairly solid in his two starts of the tournament so far. In the preliminary round, he put on a clinic with a handful of highlight reel saves against Canada, but ultimately lost 5-1. On Wednesday night, the 19-year-old made 28 saves to shut down a highly potent American offense.

The Czechs are in for a tough battle against Canada, but if they can stick to their game plan and replicate what they did agaianst the United States, anything is possible.

Players to Watch

Canada: Tyson Foerster
Czechia: Jan Mysak

While they both advanced to the semi-finals, Finland and Sweden looked fairly average in their quarter-final match-ups. Finland used four powerplay goals to propel them to a 5-2 win over Germany and Sweden narrowly defeated Latvia with a third period goal from Philadelphia Flyers prospect Emil Andrae.

Finland's powerplay looked incredible throughout Wednesday's tilt with Germany, but in terms of their play at 5-on-5, they were just okay and will need to be better on Friday. Ottawa Senators prospect Roby Jarventie put up four points in the win and has looked better and better as the tournament has gone on.

Despite allowing a pair of powerplay goals from Germany forward Bennet Rossmy, Finnish netminder Leevi Merilainen, also an Ottawa Senators prospect, looked solid, making 19 saves in the win. He'll be in for a much tougher test against Sweden on Friday, if the Swedes manage to get their offense going.

Sweden looked lost at times during their 2-1 win over tournament minnows, Latvia, on Wednesday. Their powerplay was not nearly as good as it needs to be. They capitalize on the man advantage in the first period through Isak Rosen's tally, but failed to score on a five-minute major penalty early in the final frame. One positive for Sweden though, is that they have the best penalty kill in the tournament going into action on Friday.

There are several players on Sweden's roster that need to contribute more, and while he hasn't played terribly, Detroit Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson only has one goal and an assist through four games, missing the final preliminary game against Germany due to an illness. While Sweden's hopes of a first gold medal since 2012 don't solely rest on his shoulders, he needs to play a big role on Friday to ensure his nation gets back to the gold medal game for the first time since 2018.

In goal for the Swedes, they have two really good options, but it's more likely they go with Minnesota Wild prospect Jesper Wallstedt. Wallstedt has a two wins in the tournament thus far, along with a 2.02 GAA and a .922 save percentage.

It's going to be an extremely tight game tomorrow between two really strong teams. We're in for a great day of hockey with two exciting match-ups, the winner of each game advancing to the gold medal game and the losers playing for bronze on Saturday.

Players to Watch

Finland: Aatu Raty
Sweden: Simon Edvinsson

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