By virtue of a 20-save shutout from Oskari Salminen and a three point game from Julius Nättinen in Stockholm earlier today, the IHLC will officially be brought to the inaugural Four Nations Face-Off next week, as Finland’s win over Czechia guarantees that Finland or Sweden will bring the title across the Atlantic to Montréal.

As a result of Czechia’s Gold Medal win over Switzerland at the 2024 World Championships last May, there was always only a 50% chance that the IHLC would make it to the new tournament, given that the title would spend the first months of the 2024-25 season on the Euro Hockey Tour, meaning that Sweden or Finland would need to leave the third and latest leg of the Tour, the Beijer Hockey Games, with the IHLC. After sweeping December’s Swiss Ice Hockey Games, and dispatching Sweden 4-1 in the opener of the Beijer Games on enemy ice, it looked like the Narodnitym had the momentum to play spoiler and keep the IHLC in Europe until the World Championships.

However, it was a three-goal second period, with markers from Oiva Keskinen, Sebastian Repo and Oliver Kapanen, and the aforementioned shutout by Salminen, that gave Finland the 3-0 victory. And by virtue of closing out the Games against host Sweden tomorrow in Stockholm, this guarantees the title will leave Sweden either with the host Tre Kronor, who opens the Four Nations against Canada on 12 February, or with the Leijonat, who opens their Four Nations one night later against the United States. The two Scandinavian rivals will meet head to head on 15 February, before the tournament shifts to Boston on 17 February.

While it would have stood out as a unique historical anomaly, and a testament to the Czechs’ dominance over the past few seasons, for the IHLC to not make it to the first true best-on-best international hockey tournament since 2016, this now means that the title will now appear at all nine of the NHL’s international tournaments, dating back to the 1976 Canada Cup, and should be in for a thrilling ride in the lead-up to the 2026 Olympics in Milan!

Photo Credit: iDNES – IIHF – HHOF – IOC