2017 World Junior Groups Are Revealed

2017_wjc_logo_e

A few days after the United States claimed bronze in Finland, they learned the nations they have to face in Canada if they want to win more hardware. The 2017 IIHF World Junior Championships will take place Dec. 26- Jan 5 in Montreal and Toronto. Both NHL arenas (Bell Centre and Air Canada Centre) will host games, with Montreal hosting the finals. The two cities co-hosted the 2015 edition, with Toronto hosting the finals that saw Canada claim their 15th title.

The United States will be in the Toronto group with 2016 silver medalists Russia, host Canada, Slovakia and newly promoted Latvia. The Montreal group will consist of defending gold medalist Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Sweden, and Switzerland. The groups are sorted in a snake pattern based on the final standings based on this year, with the newly promoted team replacing the team who were relegated.

The host Canadians will try to win gold on hole soil – they’ve done so five times in 11 previous times hosting the tournament. The six times they failed to win gold they won silver four times and bronze twice. They are looking to avenge their worse performance since 1998 when they lost in the quarterfinals like the most recent edition. Canada’s record in the preliminary round — a win, a shootout win and two regulation losses — left it sixth in the final standings.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *