FRISCO, Texas – There aren’t many firsts for Canada’s national hockey team, but we saw one Saturday night. For the first time in the history of the IIHF Men’s Under-18 World Championship, Canada has won back-to-back gold medals. 

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Led by goaltender Jack Ivankovic and forward Brady Martin’s two goals, Canada rolled over Sweden, 7-0, to finish the tournament with a perfect record and secure their second straight gold. It was Canada’s sixth gold medal at the U18 Worlds all-time.

Canada capitalized on mistakes, played a physical game and owned the puck for much of the game. They got the scoring started early in the first period when 2026 NHL Draft eligible Xavier Villeneuve ripped a wrister from the left point past Sweden goalie Love Härenstam. 

Brady Martin doubled Canada’s lead on a net-front tap-in after a puck bounced off a Swedish defenseman to Cole Reschny, who pushed the puck to Martin.

From that point on, Canada never looked back. They dominated the shot counter, dominated the physical game and took aways Sweden’s best offensive weapons with relative ease.

Ivankovic was sharp when his team needed him, but the play was very rarely in his end and the scoring chances were fewer and farther between.

Canada added three more goals in the third period including tallies from Jackson Smith, Ethan Czata and Martin’s second.

It was more of the same in the third period as captain Braeden Cootes extended the lead to 6-0 1:12 into the final period. The celebration was already on, but the extra breathing room didn't hurt. Jack Nesbitt added the exclamation point and extra point to make it 7-0.

Ivankovic got shutouts in each of the semifinal and final, allowing just two goals in the medal round and six over six appearances in the tournament. 

Team USA Wins Bronze At 2025 U18 Worlds

Team USA managed to leave home ice with some hardware after Des Moines Buccaneers forward Ben Kevan scored in overtime to hand the Americans a 4-3 win.

The back-and-forth game saw four lead changes with USA striking first off the stick of defenseman Blake Fiddler. Slovakia scored twice in the second period with Michal Svrcek scoring both off of nice wristers from inside the dots, carrying a 2-1 lead into the third period.

Jacob Kvasnicka scored early in the third to level things, while Cole McKinney scored a key goal for USA in the second half of the period. It seemed like Team USA would have the advantage, but Slovakia answered less than a minute later as Jan Chovan slipped a puck past Patrick Quinlan.

That set up a back-and-forth overtime that was eventually ended on Kevan’s first shift and first shot of the extra period, allowing the U.S. to ensure they didn’t leave empty handed.

U18 Worlds All-Star Team And MVP

The tournament all-star team as selected by the media was:

Forward: Brady Martin, Canada
Forward: Ivar Stenberg, Sweden
Forward: Filip Ekberg, Sweden
Defense: Sascha Boumedienne, Sweden
Defense: Drew Schock, USA
Goalie: Jack Ivankovic, Canada

MVP: Filip Ekberg, Sweden

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