2023 World Junior Hockey Championship Gold Medal Game: Canada vs. Czechia Odds, Prediction

Canada gets a shot at redemption at the 2023 World Junior Hockey Championship in Halifax as they will try to win their second gold medal in five months against the only team that’s defeated them at this tournament, Czechia. Canada punched their ticket to the gold medal game with a 6-2 win over longtime rival U.S.A. in the semi’s on Wednesday, while Czechia downed Sweden 2-1 in overtime. These teams opened the tournament against each other, with Czechia pulling off a surprise 5-2 win.

Canada is a slim favourite to win on the IIHF odds, while the total is set at 6.5.

2023 World Junior Hockey Championship Gold Medal Game Betting Odds

Canada and Czechia have met 23 times at the World Juniors since 1993 with Canada winning all but two of those games. Unfortunately, one of those losses came at this tournament on Boxing Day. They met twice at the tournament in August, with Canada winning 5-1 in the preliminary round and 6-3 in the semi’s. In 23 head-to-heads, Canada has outscored Czechia 115-43.

Canada is -233 to open the scoring on Thursday, while Czechia is +139 and a scoreless game through regulation time is a +10,000 long shot. With the total sitting at 6.5, the Over is a very slim -120 favourite, while the Under sits at -115. A win on Thursday would make Canada the first country to win 20 gold medals at the World Juniors. This will be Czechia’s first appearance in the gold medal game since winning back-to-back tournaments in 2000 and 2001.

Team Canada

Canada fell behind 2-0 by the midway point of the first period in the semi’s on Wednesday, but answered back by scoring the game’s next six goals. Connor Bedard continued his torrid pace with his tournament leading ninth goal and his 23 points is 11 more than the next closest player in the tournament. Joshua Roy stepped up big against the Americans with two goals and two assists, while Logan Stankoven, Adam Fantilli and Brandt Clarke also scored. Thomas Milic stopped 43 of 45 shots faced in net.

Bedard has been the story of this tournament for Canada. The projected first overall pick in the 2023 NHL draft has smashed Canadian records and now has the most all-time goals (17) and points (36) by a Canadian at the World Juniors and he also owns the points record (23) in a single tournament for Canada. Bedard can still make more history as he is one goal short of matching the single tournament record by a Canadian.

Team Czechia

Czechia waited until literally the last minute to put the puck in the net against Sweden in the semi’s on Wednesday as David Jiricek’s goal with 39 seconds remaining in the game tied things 1-1 and sent the game into overtime. Jiri Kulich sealed the deal from there, scoring the game-winner with 50 seconds remaining in overtime to avoid a shootout. Kulich leads the team with eight points, including six goals in the tournament. Goaltender Tomas Suchanek stopped 21 of 22 shots faced.

As an older, experienced team, Czechia has shown very little weak spots in this tournament. There are 16 returning players from the Czech team that lost to Sweden in the bronze medal game at last year’s tournament in August. The most important returning player has been Suchanek, who has played every second of the tournament. Suchanek has registered a stellar 1.30 goals-against average and .938 save percentage. He’s also contributed to the offence with four assists.