The World Junior Hockey Championship - also known as the World Under-20 Hockey Championship - brings together the best teenaged hockey players in the world.
The tournament begins on Boxing Day and continues into the first week of January.
Generally, the only elite players missing are 19-year-olds who are already playing in the NHL. Occasionally, an NHL team will release a player to his national team during the World Juniors.
Scroll down this page for:
The Tournament Format
Overtime and Shootout Format
Recent World Junior results
All-Time Medal Standings
Tournament Format
Group Stage:
The World Junior (Under-20) Hockey Championship includes ten teams divided into two groups of five. Each team plays all other teams within the group, after which the group standings are set.
Group Standings:
A win in regulation time is worth 3 points.
An overtime or shootout win is worth 2 points.
An overtime or shootout loss is worth 1 point.
A loss in regulation time is worth 0 points.
Playoff Format:
The first-place team from each group advances directly to the semifinal.
Second and third-place teams from each group cross over to play quarterfinal or "qualification" games.
Quarterfinal winners advance to the semifinals, where they play the first-place teams.
Semifinal winners meet in the gold medal game. Semifinal losers play the bronze medal game.
Overtime and Shootout Format:
In the group stage, teams play five minutes of four-on-four, sudden-death overtime, followed by a three-man shootout.
In all playoff games except the Gold Medal game, teams play ten minutes of sudden-death overtime, followed by a three-man shootout.
In the Gold Medal game, teams play twenty minutes of sudden-death overtime, followed by a three-man shootout.
Recent Results:
2008 World Junior Hockey Championship: Canada escapes with the gold.
2007 World Junior Hockey Championship: A shootout thriller in the semifinal.
2006 World Junior Hockey Championship: Canada defends at home.
2005 World Junior Hockey Championship: The best junior team ever?
2004 World Junior Hockey Championship: USA breaks through.
All-Time Medal Standings
The World Junior Hockey Championship began as an invitational tournament in 1974, and was sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation in 1977. Here are the all-time tournament medal standings since 1977:
- Russia: 12 Gold, 9 Silver, and 5 Bronze.
(includes medals won by the Soviet Union and Commonwealth of Independent States prior to 1992)
- Canada: 13 Gold, 6 Silver, and 4 Bronze.
- Czech Republic: 2 Gold, 5 Silver, and 6 Bronze.
(includes medals won by Czechoslovakia prior to 1993)
- Finland: 2 Gold, 4 Silver, and 7 Bronze.
- Sweden: 1 Gold, 6 Silver, and 4 Bronze.
- USA: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, and 3 Bronze.
- Switzerland: 1 Bronze.
- Slovakia: 1 Bronze.
