2025 World Juniors: Top standouts from Czechia vs. Kazakhstan
OTTAWA – Czechia has taken home the victory in the most lopsided game of the 2025 World Junior Championship, beating Kazakhstan 14-2 at TD Place on Saturday.
Czechia has improved to 2-0 after also beating Switzerland 5-1 on the opening day of play. Kazakhstan, meanwhile, sits at 0-2 after two games but has two important games against Slovakia and Switzerland still left on the docket.
The Kazakhs got off to a solid start, registering two quick shots – including one on a solid breakaway chance. But two goals just six minutes apart put the Czechs in the lead early. At 5:45, Matej Mastralirsky scored after taking Jakub Fibigr’s feed and scoring on his own rebound. Then, on the next play, Jakub Stancl set up Petr Sikora on the rush to make it 2-0 to completely flip the game upside down.
Kazakhstan would get one goal before the end of the first period, with Kirill Kyapunov capitalizing on the power play at 18:34. But by then, the Czechs already had two more goals from Vojtech Hradec and Jakub Dvorak, making it a 4-1 game.
Everything fell apart in the second period. Czechia scored seven goals on 15 shots in the second, with the Kazakhs making a second goalie change after the eighth goal. Alexander Kim would score early in the second to give the Kazakhs another reason to celebrate, but Jakub Stancl and Vojtech Hradec had a goal each in the final two minutes to finish off the game.
Czechia
#12 Eduard Sale, LW (Seattle Kraken): Sale got the game started with an excellent first-period first period with two assists. He made a great play on the first goal, analyzing the Kazakh defense before finding an open spot for Jakub Fibigr. He then had a second assist on a great pass to Dvorak at 11:01 to help put the game out of reach early. He was quiet the rest of the day, but the Czechs needed Sale to have a big showing and he delivered.
#18 Matej Mastalirsky, RW (Undrafted): Mastalirsky scored the 1-0 goal at 5:45 and then had two more on consecutive shifts in the second. The sharpshooting forward made the most of his opportunities and overall showed a solid level of energy. Not bad for the undrafted 19-year-old looking to turn some heads.
#21 Jakub Stancl, RW (St. Louis Blues): Stancl had an outstanding showing with two goals and two assists. The goal was nice, but the set-ups on the two assists were excellent, too. He sees the ice as well as anyone on this team and has been a primary play driver early on. The Blues have a lot of solid prospects at this tourney, and Stancl is one of the best.
#22 Vojtech Hradec, C (Utah Hockey Club): Three goals and two assists? Not a bad night. The 6-foot-4 forward was a perfect net-front presence for the Czechs, and while he’s known more for his defensive play, it was his chops with the puck that really stood out today. But he also overpowered opponents and backchecked hard, so that’s a plus.
#7 Jakub Fibigr, D (Seattle Kraken): Fibigr was my favorite defenseman today. He can be a bit inconsistent in his own zone but he did a good job of keeping the Kazakhs to the outside and four assists to boot. Three of them were secondary, but it was because he did so well on the zone entries all game long.
Kazakhstan
#29 Kirill Lyapunov, LW (Undrafted): There wasn’t much to get excited about on Kazakhstan’s end, but I thought he looked good before he scored the first Kazakh goal. He helped set up a breakaway and had two other decent looks in the second before he scored on the power play.