2024 World Junior Championship Odds, Prediction: Canada vs. Latvia

Canada opened their three-peat bid at the World Juniors on a winning note Tuesday in Gothenburg, Sweden as they downed Finland 5-2. Latvia, playing in the tournament’s top division for the third straight year, didn’t start off as hot as they were blanked 6-0 against Sweden.

Canada is a massive -10,000 favourite to win on the WJC betting odds, with the game total set at 5.5.

2024 World Junior Championship betting odds

As mentioned, this will be Latvia’s third straight appearance in the top division of the World Juniors, but they’ve actually spent seven of the last 10 years relegated to the lower Division I pool. Canada and Latvia met twice in the preliminary round over the last decade (2017 and 2022), with the Canadians winning by a combined score of 15-4.

Canada and Latvia obviously come into this tournament with very different pedigrees. The Canadians have won the tournament a record 20 times, which is seven more than the next closest nation, Russia. Latvia, on the other hand, has never medalled at the World Juniors and they’ve been relegated to as low as Division II multiple times. One interesting note though, since Latvia didn’t become an independent nation until the early 1990s, they played in the World Juniors as part of the Soviet Union until 1992, an era that saw the Soviets win eight gold medals.

Team Canada

Nate Danielson opened the scoring for Canada on Boxing Day and went on to finish the game with a goal and an assist. Maveric Lamoureux also had a goal and an assist, while Owen Allard, Macklin Celebrini and Matthew Poitras each added a goal. Celebrini is expected to be the first overall pick at next year’s NHL draft and Poitras has played 27 games for the Boston Bruins this season, but Allard is an unheralded late injury replacement who is making the most of his opportunity.

At the other end of the ice, Mathis Rousseau stoped 24 of 26 shots faced, including a highlight reel save on a 2-on-0 early in the first period. Rousseau, who was passed over in the last two NHL drafts, now has the early edge over Scott Ratzlaff and Samuel St-Hilaire as Canada’s No. 1 option in net. Canada ultimately outshot Finland 31-26. The special teams’ units are clicking right away as Canada scored on one of two power play opportunities and they successfully killed off five of six minor penalties.

Team Latvia

It wasn’t the start Latvia was hoping for in their tournament-opening game against the host nation, but it’s not altogether a surprising result. The stats were heavily skewed in Sweden’s favour as they outshot Latvia 35-20 and scored on three of five power play opportunities. Latvia failed to capitalize on their three power plays. Deivs Rolovs, who faced 35 shots in net, was tagged for all six goals.

Latvia’s roster has two key veteran players in this tournament as Dans Locmelis and Sandis Vilmanis are each back for their third World Junior Championship. Locmelis, a freshman at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, notched three goals in six games at last year’s tournament, while Vilmanis, who plays for Sarnia in the OHL, had a goal and an assist at the 2023 WJC.

Canada vs. Latvia WJC score prediction

Canada 7, Latvia 0