The group stage at the 2026 IIHF Men’s Under-20 World Junior Championships has come to an end and the qualifying teams have moved onto the knockout stage. It’s been a fun tournament so far with Sweden and Canada emerging as the top seeds from their groups. For Minnesota Wild fans, they’ve had a chance to watch a couple of the team’s prospects play for international pride right in their own backyard.
Both Adam Benak (Czechia) and Aron Kiviharju (Finland) have helped their teams advance to the quarter-finals. Benak and teammates take on Switzerland on Friday at 3:30 while Kiviharju and the Finns battle the United States at 5:00 pm on the same day.
Kiviharju, the Wild’s fourth-round pick in 2024, is in his second U20 championship and the experience has allowed him to wear the “C” for Finland, who went 2-0-1-1 in the preliminaries to finish third in Group B behind Canada and Czechia. The dynamic defender had three assists in three games (he missed one game due to illness) as Finland potted 19 goals in the group stage. Only Canada (25) and Sweden (21) scored more often.
Prior to coming over for the tournament, Kiviharju had 7 points (2 goals, 5 assists) in his second season with HIFK in the Liiga. He’s likely to spend at least one more season in Finland before heading over to the States to begin his North American career.
Finishing above Finland in the standings with a 2-1-0-1 was Czechia, courtesy of their 2-1 overtime win against the Finns last Monday. Benak opened the tournament with a two-assist game in Czechia’s entertaining 7-5 loss to Canada and then posted assists in the team’s wins against Germany and Latvia.
The scoring keeps coming for the 2025 fourth-round pick as Benak is quickly rising up the rankings for Wild prospects. In his first season with Brampton of the OHL the center has 43 points (15 goals, 28 assists) in just 26 games.
Both games will be available on NHL Network for Wild fans to watch if they don’t have tickets to see them live. Czechia vs. Switzerland will take place at the 3M Arena at Mariucci on the University of Minnesota campus while Finland vs. United States is happening at Grand Casino Arena. Tickets for both games are still available.