Seven of nine Blues prospects will play for medals; Dvorsky, Pekarcik eliminated with Slovakia's loss to Finland

Adam Jecho will never forget this goal.

Especially when it sent Czechia to an upset win over hosts.

Jecho, a third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft by the St. Louis Blues, scored the go-ahead, power-play goal for Czechia with 39.4 seconds remaining in a 4-3 upset win against host nation Canada on Thursday at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. He also had an assist on Jakub Stancl's goal (2023 fourth round).

Jecho ripped a one-timer from the left circle, off a pass from Blues 2024 first-round pick (No. 16) Adam Jiricek, who had two assists, and oust Canada in the quarterfinals for the second straight year, the first time that's ever happened:

With other Blues prospects, most fared well, some didn't.

Dalibor Dvorsky and Juraj Pekarcik gave it all they had but it wasn't enough.

The St. Louis Blues prospects each scored and assisted on one another's goals, but opportunistic Finland capitalized on limited shots in a 5-3 win against Slovakia in a quarterfinal matchup at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ottawa.

Otto Stenberg and Theo Lindstein (Sweden), along with Colin Ralph (USA) also advanced to the semifinals.

* Czechia 4, Canada 3 -- The Czechs jumped out to a 3-1 first-period lead, and Stancl, who has eight points (five goals, three assists) in five games, gave Czechia a 2-1 lead at 12:45 of the first period:

Jiricek had four shots on goal and was a minus-2 in the game in 17:57 of ice time; Stancl was a minus-1 with two shots on goal in 19:48 of ice time; Jecho played 13:18 and was a minus-1 and Ondrej Kos (2024 third round) played 10:35.

* Finland 5, Slovakia 3 -- Slovakia had he better of the play against the Finns, doubling up Finland 36-18 for the game but the better goaltending came from Finland's Petteri Rimpinen.

Finland scored three goals on seven shots before Pekarcik scored in the second period to make it 3-1 on a cross ice feed from Dvorsky and beautiful shot into the op corner on a five-minute power play:

Down 4-2, late in the third, Dvorsky made things interesting making it 4-3 with 3:56 to play jamming a puck in after Pekarcik puts it at the net:

But the Slovaks could not find an equalizer.

Dvorsky (2023, first round, No. 10 overall) had 10 shots on goal and played 25:26, finishing the tournament with nine points (five goals, four assists) in five games, while Pekarcik (2023, first round) had six shots on goal and was a plus-1 in 25:29. He finished the tournament with seven points (three goals, four assists) in five games.

* USA 7, Switzerland 2 -- Defenseman Colin Ralph (2024, second round) played 14:43 and was a plus-2 in the defending gold medal winners' rout of the Swiss.

The US, which outshot Switzerland 31-19, led 4-1 after one and 7-1 after two before putting it autopilot in the third period.

* Sweden 3, Latvia 2 -- Despite outshooting the David of this tournament 50-13, the Swedes had some anxious moments in frustratingly moving onto the semifinal round.

Otto Stenberg (2023, first round, No. 25 overall) and Theo Lindstein (2023, first round, No. 29 overall) each had a quiet day.

Lindstein was a minus-2 with two shots on goal in 20:34 of ice time, while Stenberg was a minus-1 with three shots in goal in 17:56.

Sweden led the game 3-0 in the second period before Latvia scored twice before the end of the period to make for some nervy moments but were outshot 18-2 in the third period.

As for the semifinals, Sweden takes on Finland at 2:30 p.m. and USA faces Czechia at 6:30 p.m. on NHL Network (US) and on TSN (Canada):