Washington Capitals prospect Ryan Leonard looked like a man against boys on Saturday as Team USA punched its ticket to the gold-medal game at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship with a 4-1 win over Team Czechia.

Leonard, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, scored the dagger late in the third period and also recorded an assist on a goal by Gabe Perreault (NYR) as the Americans vanquished the pesky Czechs at the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata.

With the victory, Team USA clinched its spot in the gold-medal game for the second consecutive year, marking the first time in tournament history that they’ve reached back-to-back championship games. Led in part by Leonard and Perreault, the Americans beat Team Sweden 6-2 to win gold at the 2024 World Juniors.

Leonard’s goal against Czechia came with just 4:27 remaining in regulation time. With the Czechs caught going for an ill-timed line change, Perreault and Leonard broke in relatively uncontested and connected on a textbook back-door tap-in to seal the deal for the States.

But the play Leonard made on Perreault’s goal was much more impressive. After eluding Czech defenceman Jakub Dvorak (LA) on the zone entry, Leonard managed to chip the puck into the slot from his knees. Perreault took it in stride and did the rest.

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Gabe Perreault opens the scoring for Team USA after an amazing pass from Ryan Leonard!!! #WorldJuniors

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12:49 AM · Jan 5, 2025

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Leonard finished the game with a goal, an assist, three shots, a plus-one rating, and 19:14 of total ice time, the last figure ranking fourth on Team USA behind only Zeev Buium (MIN – 28:34), Drew Fortescue (NYR – 24:37), and linemate James Hagens (2025 – 20:16).

Cole Eiserman (NYI) and Oliver Moore (CHI) also scored for Team USA, which has now outscored its opponents 11-3 in the elimination rounds despite only outshooting them 56-46. Aram Minnetian (DAL) recorded a pair of assists in the win.

The Czechs beat goaltender Trey Augustine (DET) only once on 27 shots in the semifinal, with Jakub Stancl (STL) potting his tournament-leading sixth goal just over six minutes after Perreault opened the scoring in the first period. The game remained tied until Eiserman finally answered back at the 13:41 mark of the second.

Team USA enters Sunday’s gold-medal game having won five of its six games thus far by a margin of at least three goals. The one exception was a surprising 4-3 overtime loss to Team Finland in their penultimate round-robin contest — and it just so happens that they’ll be facing the Finns once again tonight.

Best of the rest

Yes, Team Finland overcame enormous pressure from their Scandinavian rivals to win in overtime by that exact same 4-3 score in their own semifinal game on Saturday. Team Sweden entered the game as heavy favourites to play for gold but only truly showed up after 40 minutes, falling behind 3-2 in the second period while being outshot 20-10. The Swedes answered back by outshooting the Finns 20-3 in the final frame, but all they managed to do was tie it and force overtime. In the end, Sweden squandered a two-goal performance by Otto Stenberg (STL) and gave up the winning goal with less than a minute remaining in the extra frame. Undrafted forward Benjamin Rautiainen, a former Maple Leafs development camp invite in the midst of a breakout season in the Liiga, scored from a bad angle to send Finland to the final and force the Swedes to play for bronze.