Norway has won the 2026 IIHF U20 World Championship Division I Group A in Bled, Slovenia, with five straight wins – four in regulation. As a result, the Norwegians return to the top group of the World Junior Championship after a two-year absence.
This year’s win is a redemption of sorts for the Norwegians, who finished a disappointing third place last season with a roster that included NHL first-round draft picks Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Stian Solberg. This year’s team, which included returning players Tinus Luc Koblar, Ludvig Lafton, Mikkel Eriksen, and 17-year-old Niklas Aaram-Olsen, clearly meant business, outscoring its opponents 37-11.
In a balanced attack, five different players had 10 points each – Koblar, Eriksen, Aaram-Olsen, Jorgen Myhre and Elias Vatne – and defenceman Lafton had nine. Koblar was named Top Forward of the tournament, Norway’s Albert Englund was Top Goalkeeper with a 92.22 save percentage and eight goals against in four games, and Slovenia’s Jan Golicic was Top Defender.
Norway opened with an 8-2 win over France, which was followed by the only blemish on their record, a 3-2 overtime win over upstart Ukraine, then 7-3 over Austria, 10-2 over Kazakhstan and finally 9-2 over host Slovenia.
Kazakhstan takes silver, Austria bronze, Ukraine stays up
By the time they faced off against Slovenia on Saturday night to begin the last game of the tournament, the Norwegians had already secured the gold medal. That had been assured by Kazakhstan’s 5-4 victory over Austria in the penultimate game. In it, the Austrians needed a regulation win to have a chance at overtaking Norway and seemed to be on their way, taking a 4-0 first-period lead.
But Kazakhstan struck twice in the last 2:20 of the opening period and then two power-play markers in the first five minutes of the third tied the score. Austria pulled goaltender Patrick Grascher late in regulation time, but Korney Korneyev’s second goal and fifth point of the game went into the empty net for the game-winning goal.
That result tied Kazakhstan and Austria on nine points each, with the Kazakhs, who were back in Division I Group A after being relegated from the top division, getting the silver by winning the head-to-head clash.
Korneyev and Austria’s Konstantin Hutzinger tied for the tournament scoring lead with 12 points each.
Slovenia, which hosted Division I Group A for the second year in a row, finished fourth for the second year in a row with six points. That tied the Slovenes with Ukraine but won the tiebreaker by virtue of their comeback win in their head-to-head meeting, in which Slovenia trailed 3-2 but got two late goals, including Martin Bizjak’s game-winner with 1:57 remaining.
The opening game of the tournament’s final day was to decide relegation. Ukraine, playing in Division I Group A for the first time since the 2012 realignment, got off to a great start in the tournament with an overtime win over Kazakhstan and an overtime loss to Norway before collapsing late against Slovenia and then losing 9-2 to Austria.
France, which entered the game with one point from an overtime loss to Slovenia, needed a regulation win and got off to a good start, taking a 2-0 lead before the game was five minutes old. However, Ukraine battled back to tie the score with a pair of second-period goals.
Still tied late in the third period, France pulled goaltender Guillaume Schoch for an extra attacker, which led to a game-winning empty-net goal by Danylo Denisenko, who won a race for the puck in the French zone by diving forward and sweeping the puck with his stick into the unguarded net with 21 seconds remaining.
Looking ahead to next year
Kazakhstan, Austria, Slovenia and Ukraine will all return to Division I Group A next year, France moves to Group B, replaced by the winner of the 2026 IIHF World Championship Division I Group B in Milan, Italy, which concludes on Sunday.
The sixth spot will be the team that finishes 10th and is relegated from the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship in Minnesota, taking the place of Norway. From its roster of 23 this year, nine Norwegian players, including Aaram-Olsen, are eligible to return and play in next year’s World Juniors, where Norway will aim to stay in the top division for the first time since a run of three straight years from 1989 to 1991.
Final standings:
1. Norway – 14 points (promoted to 2027 IIHF World Junior Championship)
2. Kazakhstan – 9 points
3. Austria – 9 points
4. Slovenia – 6 points
5. Ukraine – 6 points
6. France – 1 point (relegated to 2027 IIHF U20 World Championship, Division I Group B)
Game results:
7 December: FRA 2-8 NOR, SLO 2-5 AUT, UKR 2-1 KAZ (OT)
8 December: AUT 4-2 FRA, NOR 3-2 UKR (OT), KAZ 5-4 SLO (SO)
10 December: AUT 3-7 NOR, UKR 3-4 SLO, KAZ 14-6 FRA
11 December: AUT 9-2 UKR, NOR 10-2 KAZ, SLO 5-4 FRA (OT)
13 December: FRA 2-3 UKR, KAZ 5-4 AUT, NOR 9-2 SLO