Norway advances to 2024 World Junior Championship after winning Division IA

Norway is off to the top division of the World Junior Championship in 2024 after beating Kazakhstan 5-3 on Sunday.

It’ll mark the first time Norway has been at the top tournament since 2014, and they can bring up to 14 returning players as the team looks to stay with the top teams.

Norway was dominant from start to finish, winning all five games and outscoring opponents 19-8. Kazakhstan and France finished on the podium, while Hungary, Denmark and Slovenia filled out the rest of the field. Norway will replace whichever team is relegated from the top division event in Halifax and Moncton in a few weeks.

Norway’s goaltender Markus Røhnebæk Stensrud, a 5-foot-9 starting goalie in the top Norweigan league, was the tournament’s top goaltender with a 5-0 record himself. He had a shutout victory against Slovenia in the opener last Sunday, and entered the tournament having posted an 11-3-0 record in 15 games with Storhamar. Petter Vesterheim finished as the team’s top scorer with seven points in five games – good for third in scoring.

Norway has played in the top tournament three separate times, immediately getting relegated each time. In 2017, they were relgated to Division IB before bouncing back to DIA. They finished as bronze medalists twice, including in the 2022 tournament, but entered as the favorites after Latvia – the defending silver medalists – were promoted to the top event after Russia’s expulsion.

The 2024 tournament will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Divsion IA tournament will see Japan boosted up after replacing the recently relegated Slovenia, while a team from the 2023 top division event will join Denmark, France, Kazakhstan and Hungary to help fill out the field.