Canada's Oliver Bonk looking to right last year's world junior wrongs in hometown

Jakub Stancl fired a hopeful shot with overtime looming.

The Czech Republic had already given underwhelming Canada all it could handle in the countries' quarterfinal matchup at last year's world junior hockey championship.

The powerhouse nation trailed 2-0 after the first period before tying things up in the second. Canada was pushing throughout the third in another largely disappointing performance at a tournament riddled with uninspired play.

Then disaster struck in Sweden.

Stancl's effort glanced off Canadian defenceman Oliver Bonk's stick and the near post of goaltender Mathis Rousseau to give the Czechs a 3-2 lead with just 11.7 seconds remaining in regulation.

Red-clad fans inside Gothenburg's Scandinavium arena buried faces in hands. Bonk's shoulders sank. The 20-time gold medallists would finish an ugly and unacceptable fifth.

"It's not something that's your fault," Bonk said looking back on the sequence. "Or in your control."

The unfortunate 19-year-old blueliner from Ottawa is keen for redemption in his hometown at the 2025 event after receiving a torrent of online abuse following Canada's disastrous exit some 12 months ago.

"You put it behind you," said the son of Czech-born former NHLer Radek Bonk, one of five returnees on the current roster. "It's hockey and it happens. It motivates you more."

Bonk, whose dad played 10 seasons in the nation's capital with the Senators, was part of a 2024 group that never got in gear under the world junior spotlight. There were high draft picks, top prospects and star players.

For whatever reason, things didn't click.

"Tough to judge it when you're in it," he said. "We've got to be more prepared, more competitive. Thought last year that we were maybe thinking it's gonna be