Raiders captain Justice Christensen had eight points during the six games of the tournament, good for second amongst defencemen. (Prince Albert Raiders/Logan Boss)

By Nick Nielsen

Christensen named tournament Best Defender

VIDEO: Raiders captain Christensen leads Canada to International Ball Hockey Championship

Jul 6, 2025 | 5:22 PM

After a chance encounter with scouting staff last summer landed him a spot on this year’s national team, Prince Albert Raiders captain Justice Christensen was named the captain of Canada’s national ball hockey team upon arriving in Poprad, Slovakia. Now, six days and five games later, Christensen and the rest of Team Canada will return to Canada as U20 International Street and Ball Hockey Federation world champions following an electric 8-7 overtime win over Czechia in the final.

Canada and Czechia started the tournament against each other during the group stage, and that game needed overtime as well. Christensen picked up two assists during that first game as Canada went on to win 3-2.

From there, Canada would go on to beat Slovakia on the second day 4-1 with Christensen adding his third assist of the tournament. On the final day of the group stage, Canada played twice. They started the day with a 9-1 stomping over Switzerland, and finished the day with a 4-2 win over the United States, and Christensen picked up an assist in both games.

With an undefeated record, the Canadians earned a bye to the finals of the ISBHF while the other teams faced each other in the semi finals. Team Czechia would earn their way into the final, setting up the rematch from the start of the tournament.

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Canada got out to a 1-0 lead in the first minute of the game, and then the ball came back to the right point for Christensen waiting to unleash the slapshot Raiders fans have come to expect.

Canada would go up 4-0 seven minutes into the game, including another assist from Christensen, but the Czechs would stop the bleeding 10 minutes in to make it 4-1 at the end of the first 15 minute period.

The Canadians would start the second period with another goal just 53 seconds in, and add another at the 7:15 mark of the second period to make it 6-1 Canada. From there, the Czechs scored twice in the second period to make it closer, but another goal in the final minute made it 7-3 Canada heading into the third period.

In that third period, the Czechs came alive. It took them 3:25 to score to make it 7-4, but then it only took them another 3:15 to make it 7-6. Canada still had the lead going into the final three minutes of the game, but an unassisted effort from Marek Daníček tied the game with less the three minutes to play.

Tensions were high heading into overtime, which was set to be a 15 minute overtime that would then lead into a shootout. Instead, the opening faceoff was won to Christensen, he fed his defensive partner Mateo Rotondi, and Rotondi sent a pass up the middle to spring Andy Knight on a breakaway, scoring seven seconds into overtime to complete his hat trick, end the game, and earn Canada the 8-7 overtime victory and the U20 International Street and Ball Hockey Federation world championship.

In the final game, Christensen tied for a team lead in points with 1G-2A-3P on the night, rounding his tournament total out to 1G-7A-8P, which also finished tied for seventh in scoring overall. He finished second in scoring amongst defenceman in the tournament, and earned Best Defenceman Honours as well.

Fellow Canadians Nicholas Muc and Brandon Gill were also named Best Goalkeeper and Most Valuable Player respectively.