USA vs Finland: IIHF World Juniors Odds, Spread, and Total

The United States will face Finland in the World Junior Championship quarterfinals at 6 p.m. EST this Friday, hoping to leave a shaky round-robin performance behind in the process. Team USA comes off a 6-3 loss to Sweden that resulted in a No. 2 seed and a berth against Group B's No. 3 seeded Suomi.

USA's ugly goals-allowed mark of 11 in the last six periods clouds the efforts of bright, young forwards like Will Zellers, who scored three winning goals in a row to begin the event. Head coach Bob Motzko has tried all three netminders on the Stars & Stripes roster, getting only one satisfactory start from Nick Kempf in a 2-1 defeat of Switzerland. Alternative G Caleb Heil has posted an .846 save percentage in two contests.

All four WJC quarterfinals will face off on Friday. Sweden meets Latvia in an afternoon rematch, while Czechia versus Switzerland also precedes the USA-Finland game. Canada and Slovakia's quarterfinal at 3M Arena will cap off the evening. Canada seeded No. 1 in Group B after outlasting Finland 7-4 in a late contest on Wednesday. Finland, with a 2-2 record, dropped into third place behind Canada and Czechia. 

Spread

Money line

Total

Note: The above data was collected on Jan. 2, 2026, and may have changed since writing. 

USA

Finland

Finland's subpar odds to win reflect an unremarkable effort in the group stage. Suomi scored its expected wins over Denmark and Latvia in Group B, then ebbed once tougher matchups came. Not only were the Finns outpaced a combined 9-5 in losses to Czechia and Canada, but they can boast no forwards ranked among the tournament's top 10 in scoring, in spite of the 8-0 win over Latvia. Liiga defenseman Lasse Boelius co-leads Finland with five points, tied with undrafted 19-year-old sniper Roope Vesterinen. 

Blogger Corey Pronman of The Athletic does not have a kind word for Team USA's form versus Sweden. Pronman, in a free article by way of the New York Times, claims that the Americans are in "disarray in this tournament despite their 3-1 record." He also notes that while the top-line centerman James Hagens has continued to shine at times, Hagens' "disappearance" in other periods has harmed the reigning champs. 

The over-total-goals will be a popular pick for USA-Finland. But under the circumstances, you can look for the Finns to take a page from their senior team and focus on defense for three periods, hoping to counter and score against the porous United States team. Finland is a valuable pick to cover a generous spread.