Canada is a heavy favourite against Denmark as they play their third round-robin game at the World Junior Championship Monday in Minneapolis.
The Canadians are looking to make it three straight victories to begin the tournament after wins over Czechia on Boxing Day and an overtime triumph against Latvia on the weekend.
Watch Monday’s game LIVE at 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT on TSN1, TSN4, TSN.ca and the TSN App with pre-game coverage beginning 30 minutes prior on TSN4.
Because they needed OT to beat Latvia, Canada has collected five of a possible six points and trails Finland for the Group B lead after the Finns took their opening two games without needing the extra frame. But Canada can still finish atop the group with regulation wins in their final two games. After their matchup with Denmark on Monday, they will battle Finland on New Year’s Eve in a game that could very well decide the group winner headed into the knockout stage.
Before that, Canada will need to take care of business against Denmark. They handled them just fine in pre-tournament action, registering 50 shots on goal in a lopsided 13-2 win on Dec. 23.
But despite the two wins, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing at the World Juniors for Dale Hunter’s team. Canada trailed in the second period and needed four third-period goals to hold off Czechia for a 7-5 win in last week’s wild opener.
Czechia had eliminated Canada in the quarterfinals in back-to-back years at the World Juniors and several players mentioned the importance of delivering payback in addition to starting the tournament off with a victory.
Payback was on Canada’s mind in their second game against Latvia on Saturday, exactly one year to the day of Latvia’s stunning upset over Canada on home soil last year in Ottawa. Canada led that game late into the third period before conceding a late equalizer. After overtime solved nothing, Latvia emerged with a 3-2 upset win in the shootout.
The same thing nearly played out Saturday, as Latvia forced overtime with a late goal. But Canada got things together in the extra frame when Gavin McKenna delivered a nifty cross-ice pass to Michael Hage, who fired a one-timer into the Latvia net for the 2-1 overtime victory.
“I mean, it’s not like we’re doing bad,” Canada forward Michael Misa said via TSN’s Mark Masters. “We’ve won two games so far.”
But he also knows Canada can’t take Denmark lightly despite the pre-tournament rout given how the first two games have gone.
“We can’t look at our pre-tournament game and think it’s going to be easy,” Misa said via Masters.
“We can’t underestimate anyone. We have to go in there with a fresh mindset and find a way to win.”
The Danes have dropped both games to begin this year’s tournament, falling 6-2 to Finland on Dec. 26 and 7-2 to Czechia a day later.
Canada-Denmark is one of four World Junior games taking place on Monday. Germany will battle Sweden to get things started at 1pm ET/10am PT followed by Finland and Czechia at 3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT. The United States will then play Slovakia at 6pm ET/3pm PT prior to Canada’s game.
Watch every game of the 2026 World Junior Championship LIVE on TSN, TSN.ca and the TSN App.