2022 IIHF World Junior Championship (2022 WJHC)

We'll take a look at the top news and events of the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, which will be held in Canada.

2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships: when and where to play

2022 WJHC will be held in Canada, just like a year ago. This time the competition will be hosted by the cities of Edmonton and Red Deer. The championship will begin on December 26, 2021 with a match between Finland and Germany. Each national team will play four matches in the group stage.

The playoff stage begins on January 2. The best young ice hockey players in the world will determine the medal winners on January 5.

The World Junior Ice Hockey Championships format

2022 WJHC will be held according to a classic format. Ten national teams will play in the tournament, which are divided into two groups.

In the first stage of competition all teams will play inside their quintets in the format "each team against each other". Thus, each team will play four games, after which the final standings will be formed. Teams from the last place of each group goes to the consolation round, where the series is played until two wins for the right to remain in the elite division, and the rest form the four quarterfinal pairs according to the following principle:

• 1A vs. 4B;
• 2A vs. 3B;
• 3A vs. 2B;
• 4A vs. 1B.

The losers of the quarter-finals finish the tournament and the winners go on to the semi-finals. In this case, before the semifinals there will be a new seeding of the remaining four teams based on the results of the group stage. And the best team according to the results of re-seeding will play with the worst, and the second with the third.

The strongest team in the semifinals goes to battle for the gold, while the losers will fight for the bronze. It is important to note that all semifinals, the third-place game and the finals are played in Edmonton at the brand-new and state-of-the-art Rogers Place Arena.

Rogers Place Arena

Who is playing at the 2022 WJHC

Ten teams take part in the 2022 WJHC, divided into two groups of five teams each as follows:

Group A matches will take place in Edmonton at the 18,000-seat Rogers Place Arena, opened in 2016 and home to the local Edmonton Oilers.

Group B teams will battle at the 7,000-seat WP Centrium in Red Deer. The Red Deer Rebels, a local Western Hockey League (WHL) team, play in the arena.

Favorites for the 2022 WJHC

Betting company experts consider Canada to be the clear favorite. You can bet on their victory for 2.50. Next comes the Americans, who won the last WJHC and the odds for Russia and Sweden are 7.00, which is much lower than the odds for North American teams. Traditionally, Finland and the Czech Republic will also be a threat.

All IIHF World Junior Championship Winners by Year

The upcoming World Juniors, to which the U.S. will go as champions, will be the 46th in a row. Consequently, 45 sets of medals have been previously drawn. By the number of gold medals team, Canada is the undisputed leader. They won the tournament 18 times. If you look at the total number of medals, then the Russian team is in the first place, but only in the sum of the USSR times - 37 awards. The full medal count is available below: