PLYMOUTH, Mich. – The final day of games at the 2024 World Junior Summer Showcase took place here today at USA Hockey Arena with Finland erasing a two-goal deficit to best Sweden, 5-3, and the U.S defeating Canada, 5-4, in a thrilling game decided in a shootout.

The event served as an evaluation for athletes seeking to make their respective national teams for the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, set for Dec. 26, 2024, through Jan. 5, 2025, in Ottawa, Ontario.

Below are brief recaps from the two games.

HIGHLIGHTS

The Finns skated to a 5-3 comeback win in the first game of the day powered by a third period surge.

Sweden’s Victor Eklund opened the scoring just past the 10-minute mark of the first on the power play with a wrister from the left circle. Lucas Pettersson doubled the lead only 11 seconds into the second, finishing a feed from Otto Stenberg behind the net.

Joona Saarelainen got the Finns on the board at the 7:11 mark of the second with a power-play marker, scooping up a loose puck amidst some traffic net-front and sliding it past Marcus Gidlöf.

Wilhelm Hallquisth made it 3-1 with 8:17 left in the period, wiring the puck from the left dot. Finland’s Emil Kuusla scored off a rebound in the low slot with 3:48 to go to make it a 3-2 contest heading into the final stanza.

Emil Hemming found the equalizer 2:44 into the third, cutting through the Swedish defenders and roofing a shot past Gidlof before Jesse Kiiskinen gave the Finns their first lead, going between-the-legs on the power play with 7:27 left in the contest. An empty-net tally from Jesse Nurmi with 1:50 to play accounted for the 5-3 final.

GAME PHOTOS

Team USA took down Canada in dramatic fashion with Brodie Ziemer’s (Hutchinson, Minn.) goal in the sixth round of the shootout giving the U.S. a 5-4 victory.

Brandon Svoboda (Level Green, Pa.) broke the ice 13:35 into the game, scoring off the rush after Max Plante (Hermantown, Minn.) picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone.

AJ Spellacy (Westlake, Ohio) added a second with 1:46 left in the opening frame, converting on a patient cross-crease pass from Beckett Hendrickson (Minnetonka, Minn.) after Cole Hutson (Chicago, Ill.) forced a turnover in the neutral zone.

Berkly Catton got the Canadians on the board 1:26 into the second with a power-play goal that bounced off the post and in.

Quentin Musty (Hamburg, N.Y.) regained Team USA’s two-goal lead just over a minute later with a snipe from the right dot off a picture-perfect passing play with James Hagens (Hauppauge, N.Y.). Logan Hensler (Woodbury, Minn.) earned an assist as well.

Jett Luchanko scored on the power-play with 1:30 left in the middle frame, getting a stick on an initial shot by Catton for the redirect at the goal mouth to make it 3-2, then Denver Barkey tied it up 6:48 into the final frame, scoring on an odd-man rush.

With the U.S. skating with a two-man advantage, Cole Eiserman (Newburyport, Mass.) fired a rocket from the bottom of the right faceoff circle after a feed from Cole Hutson (Chicago, Ill.) to put Team USA back in the lead at 9:14.

Calum Ritchie evened the game on the power play for Canada with 7:46 left in regulation to force overtime, but neither team scored in 3-on-3 five-minute extra session and the game went to a shootout.

Each team scored once through the first five rounds -- Bradly Nadeau for Canada and Musty for the U.S. After Nadeau was foiled by U.S. netminder Hampton Slukynsky (Warroad, Minn.) in the top of the sixth round, Ziemer ended the game with a snipe that found its way inside the left post.

Slukynsky finished with 34 saves to pick up the win as the U.S. outshot Canada, 48-38.

GAME PHOTOS