For the first time in history, the World Junior Championship relegation round came down to a single game, with Germany defeating Norway 5-4 in overtime to send Norway back down to Division IA in 2025, after just one year in the Top Division.

Norway, who went 0-4 in Group B play with a -18 goal differential, was no match for the Germans, who only fell to the relegation game by virtue of a head-to-head loss with Latvia, following their historic first ever World Juniors defeat of Finland on 27 December. The single-elimination game went nearly the distance, with a pair of goals from Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and Mats Bakke Olsen sending the game unexpectedly to overtime. But it was a Moritz Elias strike just 58 seconds into the extra frame to ensure Germany would not be relegated for the first time since 2015.

Norway will now join Austria, Denmark, France, Hungary and newly-promoted Slovenia in next year’s Division IA series, while Kazakhstan will replace Norway as the promoted team in the Top Division, making their return to the top for the first time since 2020 (when eliminated in the relegation round by Germany), sweeping this year’s Division IA tournament in Budapest, Hungary. Norway’s relegation continues the inconsistent rotation of various teams being sent back down to Division IA over the years:

2012: 🇩🇰 Denmark
2013: 🇱🇻 Latvia
2014: 🇳🇴 Norway
2015: 🇩🇪 Germany
2016: 🇧🇾 Belarus
2017: 🇱🇻 Latvia
2018: 🇧🇾 Belarus
2019: 🇩🇰 Denmark
2020: 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan
2021: none due to COVID-19 pandemic
2022: none due to COVID-19 pandemic
2023: 🇦🇹 Austria
2024: 🇳🇴 Norway

Photo Credit: 2024 World Junior Championship – IIHF – HHOF – IOC