The game schedule for the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship, set to take place in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, from Dec. 26, 2025 – Jan. 5, 2026, was announced today.
The iconic IIHF World Junior Championship showcases the best men’s ice hockey players in the world under 20 years of age competing for the coveted gold medal. The 2026 World Juniors marks the 50th time the tournament will be held.

All-session and group play tickets are available here. Individual game tickets, if available, will be released at a later date.

Tournament Format

Teams will be divided into two groups and each country will play the other four teams in its group during the preliminary round. The top four teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals on Jan. 2, with the winners playing in the semifinals on Jan. 4. The two semifinals winners will face off for gold on Jan. 5, with the two losing teams competing for bronze earlier that day.

Group A, which will play its preliminary round games Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul includes the U.S., Sweden, Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany.

Group B, which includes Canada, Czechia, Finland, Latvia and Denmark will play preliminary contests at 3M Arena at Mariucci on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

In the United States

The 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship marks the seventh time the United States has hosted the tournament (1982, 1989, 1996, 2005, 2011, 2018).

Most recently, Team USA captured bronze in Buffalo, N.Y., at the 2018 World Juniors, led by Motzko as head coach. The U.S. also took home bronze at the 2011 tournament in Buffalo and Niagara, N.Y. The U.S. first hosted the World Juniors in Minneapolis and Saint Paul in 1982.