Only two games were played on day five of the 2025 World Junior Championships, but once again, those two games were about as thrilling as any fan could ask for. Team Canada and Team USA did not play either, as they were gearing up for a showdown against each other on day six. This means a fair number of people were not tuned into the action simply because their favourite team wasn’t playing.

However, for those who were tuned in (myself included), we got to see a show. Both games had comebacks, and both games finished in the overtime period after late-game heroics.

So, here are my three stars after a hectic couple of games on the World Junior slate.

Washington Capitals prospect Eriks Mateiko has already seen himself in one of my three-star pieces for FlamesNation, and he finds himself right back on the list after an impressive performance against Team Germany.

The Germans were up 2-0 just before the game’s halfway point, but after their second goal, Mateiko struck back, scoring his second goal of the tournament.

Then, Mateiko found himself on the right side of another important goal in the late stages of the game.

Following his regulation goal and shootout winner against Team Canada, Mateiko used the clutch gene in his arsenal to score a game-winning goal again for Team Latvia — this one coming in the overtime period.

Team Latvia has been an incredible story to follow, and Mateiko has been a massive contributor to that. While Capitals fans might not have been aware of his presence in their prospect pool until now, he has surely put them on notice.

The first game of the day set the tone for the match between Team Latvia and Team Germany.

Team Slovakia played Team Kazakhstan in a back-and-forth affair that saw late-game goals from both squads. However, two players, both for Team Slovakia, impressed and were key contributors to the win. The first was Juraj Pekarcik, a third-round selection by the St. Louis Blues in the 2023 draft.

Pekarcik finished with two goals and two assists, and his two tallies were about as pretty as they get in two different ways.

Pekarcik has been a huge contributor for Team Slovakia so far in the tournament, currently averaging over a point per game. His dynamic skill set has helped him score goals, like the one he scored against Kazakhstan (and registered the primary assist on the overtime winner), which halted the Kazakhstan comeback.

However, the player who caught my eye during the game was another Blues draft pick, this one in the first round of the same 2023 draft. Dalibor Dvorsky is the captain of Team Slovakia and the team leader in scoring. Since day one, he has been leading by example, including in Slovakia’s game against Team Kazakhstan, where he was sensational.

Dvorsky also registered two goals and two assists on the day, like Pekarcik, and his were just as pretty. He started the game by scoring the opening goal with a nice backhand shelf job.

Then, he scored off a stunning feed from Pekarcik on the rush for his second goal in a row:

While Pekarcik assisted on only one of Dvorsky’s goals (and it was about as nice of an assist as you can get), Dvorsky assisted on both of Pekarcik’s goals, tallying on all four of Slovakia’s regulation goals.

It was hard to pick between Pekarcik and Dvorsky for the first star of the day. It feels more like a 1A and 1B situation, but both St. Louis prospects showcased their skillset on as big of a stage as possible.