The International Ice Hockey Federation on Thursday released the schedule for the IIHF World Junior Championships being held Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The 29-game tournament for the world’s best players 20 and under will be played mostly at Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul (Group A) and 3M Arena at Mariucci (Group B) on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
Group A, comprising the U.S., Sweden, Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany, will play its preliminary round games at the X. Group B (Canada, Czechia, Finland, Latvia and Denmark) will play preliminary contests at Mariucci. Each team in each group will play the others once and the top four will advance to the quarterfinals.
Semifinals and gold medal games will be played at Xcel Energy Center from Jan 4-5. Tickets for all games can be purchased at https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2026/wm20/static/64823/tickets.
SCHEDULE
At Xcel Energy Center
Dec. 26 — Sweden vs. Slovakia, noon; U.S. vs. Germany, 5 p.m.
Dec. 27 — Slovakia vs. Germany, 1 p.m.; U.S. vs. Switzerland, 5 p.m.
Dec. 28 — Sweden vs. Switzerland, 1 p.m.
Dec. 29 — Germany vs. Sweden, noon; Slovakia vs. U.S., 5 p.m.
Dec. 30 — Switzerland vs Germany, 1 p.m.
Dec. 31 — Switzerland vs. Slovakia, noon; U.S. vs. Sweden, 5 p.m.
Jan. 2-4 — Quarterfinals, TBD
At 3M Arena at Mariucci
Dec. 26 — Denmark vs. Finland, 2:30 p.m.; Czechia vs. Canada, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 27 — Latvia vs. Canada, 3:30 p.m.; Denmark vs. Czechia, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 28 — Finland vs. Latvia, 3:30 p.m.
Dec. 29 — Finland vs. Czechia, 2:30 p.m.; Canada vs. Denmark, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 30 — Latvia vs. Denmark, 2:30 p.m.
Dec. 31 — Czechia vs. Latvia, 2:30 p.m.; Canada vs. Finland, 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 2-4 — Quarterfinals, TBD
Semifinals
Jan. 4, 3:30 p.m. / 7:30 p.m., Xcel Energy Center
Final
Jan. 5, 7:30 p.m., Xcel Energy Center
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