With the Penguins now down a top-four defenseman in Marcus Pettersson, there are two defensemen most likely to get the call from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton On Thursday at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, the World Junior Championship [https://thehockeynews.com/news/2025-world-junior-championship-full-roster-list] began its preliminary round on day one. And the final matchup of the evening included three Pittsburgh Penguins [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/]' prospects. Team Canada defeated Team Finland, 4-0, on Thursday evening, and Tanner Howe (Canada), Emil Pieniniemi (Finland), and Kalle Kangas (Finland) [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/latest-news/three-penguins-prospects-selected-for-world-juniors] were all held pointless on the evening. Howe - Pittsburgh's 46th overall pick in the second round of the 2024 NHL draft - led either team in penalty minutes with four. Canada was led to victory on goals by Gavin McKenna, Easton Cowen, Luca Pinelli, and an empty-net tally by Matthew Schaefer with just 19 seconds remaining in the game. Goaltender Carter George put up a 31-save shutout for Team Canada. Earlier in the evening, Sweden beat Slovakia, 5-2, USA defeated Germany, 10-4, and the Czech Republic bested Switzerland, 5-1. Pieniniemi, Kangas, and the rest of Team Finland will take on Germany at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon, and later on in the evening for Howe and Team Canada will be Latvia at 7:30 p.m. ET. Team USA's next tilt will come against Latvia on Saturday, Dec. 28 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjEwNjYwNDIwMDI3OTUwOTI5/thnpitbanner.png]
