The 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships was the 42nd edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship, and was hosted by the city of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

at the

KeyBank Center KeyBank Center is a multipurpose indoor arena located in Buffalo, New York. Originally known as Marine Midland Arena, the venue has since been named HSBC Arena and First Niagara Center. Home to the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey Leagu ...

and

HarborCenter LECOM Harborcenter is an American mixed-use development in Buffalo, New York developed by Pegula Sports and Entertainment. The building occupies a full 1.7 acre city block formerly known as the Webster Block, directly across from and connected ...

. It opened on December 26, 2017 and closed with the gold medal game on January 5, 2018. It was the sixth time that the United States has hosted the WJIHC, and the second time that Buffalo has done so, previously hosting in 2011. A preliminary round game between Canada and the United States was played outdoors at

New Era Field Highmark Stadium is a stadium in Orchard Park, New York, in the Southtowns of the Buffalo metropolitan area. The stadium opened in 1973 as Rich Stadium and is the home venue of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). It was kn ...

in nearby

Orchard Park, New York Orchard Park is a town in Erie County, New York. It is an outer ring suburb southeast of Buffalo. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,054, representing an increase of 5.13% from the 2000 census figure. The town contains a village a ...

on December 29, 2017. It was the second outdoor game held at any top-level IIHF world championship, the first being the opening game of the

2010 IIHF World Championship The 2010 IIHF World Championship was the 74th IIHF World Championship, an annual international ice hockey tournament. It took place between 7 and 23 May 2010 in Germany. The games were played in the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, SAP Arena in Mannh ...

, and the first one held at a junior level.

Top Division

Venues

Host selection

On July 28, 2015,

USA Hockey USA Hockey is the national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United ...

named the five initial finalists for hosting the event: *

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

Chicago and Tampa were eliminated on September 15. Buffalo was chosen as the host site on December 3, with a formal announcement on December 4.

Officials

The following officials were assigned by the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 ...

to officiate the 2018 World Junior Championships. Referees * Andris Ansons * Alexandre Garon * Jacob Grumsen * Mikko Kaukokari * Artur Kulev * Manuel Nikolic * Gordon Schukies * Robin Šír * Mikael Sjöqvist * Stephen Thomson * Jeremy Tufts * Marc Wiegand Linesmen * Franco Castelli * Markus Hägerström * William Hancock II * Rene Jensen * Jon Kilian * Dustin McCrank * Jiří Ondráček * Peter Šefčík * Alexander Sysuev * Emil Yletyinen

Rosters

Format

The preliminary round was a two group of five teams each internal round-robin format, followed by a three-round playoff. In the round-robin, two points were allotted for a win, and one additional point for a regulation win. One point was allotted for an

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

or game winning shots loss. The four highest-ranked teams from each group of the preliminary round advanced to quarterfinals while the last-placed team from each group played a

best-of-three There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

series, the loser relegated to Division IA for 2019. All other teams will retain their Top Division status.

Preliminary round

''All times are local. (

Eastern Standard Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and ...

– UTC-5)''

Group A

Group B

Relegation

Note: was relegated for the 2019 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships

Playoff round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Bronze medal game

Gold medal game

Statistics

Scoring leaders

''GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalties in minutes''
Source: IIHF

Goaltending leaders

(minimum 40% team's total ice time) ''TOI = Time On Ice (minutes:seconds); GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage; SO =

Shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

s''
Source: IIHF

Tournament awards

Most Valuable Player

Casey Mittelstadt Casey Mittelstadt (born November 22, 1998) is an American professional ice hockey center for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected in the first round, eighth overall, by the Sabres in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. M ...

All-star team * Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson * Defencemen: Rasmus Dahlin,

Cale Makar Cale Douglas Makar (born October 30, 1998) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman for the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected with the fourth overall pick by the Avalanche in the 2017 NHL Entry Dr ...

* Forwards:

Filip Zadina Filip Zadina (; born 27 November 1999) is a Czech professional ice hockey player for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Zadina was drafted sixth overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. Playing career ...

, Kieffer Bellows IIHF best player awards * Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson * Defenceman: Rasmus Dahlin * Forward:

Final standings

Division I

The Division IA tournament was held in

Courchevel Courchevel () is a French Alps ski resort. It is a part of Les Trois Vallées, the largest linked ski areas in the world. Courchevel also refers to the towns of Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz), Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond), and Cou ...

and Meribel,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

from December 10–16, 2017. The Division IB tournament was held in

Bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

from December 9–15, 2017. As a result of the Division IA tournament, Kazakhstan was promoted to the Top Division, and Hungary was relegated to Division IB. As a result of the Division IB tournament, Norway was promoted to Division IA, and Lithuania was relegated to Division IIA.

Division IA

Division IB

Division II

The Division IIA tournament was held in Dumfries,

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

from December 10–16, 2017. The Division IIB tournament was held in Belgrade,

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

from January 10–16, 2018. As a result of the Division IIA tournament, Japan was promoted to Division IB, and Netherlands was relegated to Division IIB.

Division IIA

Division II B

Division III

The Division III tournament was held in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

from January 22–28, 2018. The Division III qualification tournament was held in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

from February 5–7, 2018.

Division III qualification

References

External links

* {{2017–18 in men's ice hockey

2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships The 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships was the 42nd edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship, and was hosted by the city of Buffalo, New York at the KeyBank Center and HarborCenter. It opened on December 26, 2017 and closed with ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

Sports competitions in Buffalo, New York Outdoor ice hockey games 2017–18 in American ice hockey 2017 in sports in New York (state) 2018 in sports in New York (state) World Junior Ice Hockey World Junior Ice Hockey 21st century in Buffalo, New York International sports competitions in New York (state)