A total of 28 players will descend upon Columbus, Ohio, tomorrow (Dec. 15) in hopes of landing a spot on the U.S. National Junior Team that will compete in the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship from Dec. 26, 2017 - Jan. 5, 2018, in Buffalo, New York.
"As a staff, we're excited for what will be an extremeley competitive camp in Columbus," said Jim Johannson, general manager of the 2018 U.S. National Junior Team and assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey. "We have 28 great players not only hoping to represent their country and win a gold medal, but to do so on home ice. These players have excelled through a wide variety of development programs within USA Hockey and I know our coaches are excited about the caliber of players to consider in building our final roster."
The training camp will include practices at the OhioHealth Ice Haus Friday-Sunday (Dec. 15-17) followed by a pair of practices at Nationwide Arena Dec. 18-19. The camp will culminate in an exhibition game against Belarus at Northwest Arena in Jamestown, New York on Dec. 20.
The 28-player preliminary roster was named on Dec. 5 and includes seven members of the 2017 U.S. National Junior Team that earned the gold medal at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship in Montreal and Toronto, Canada and a total of 24 players who have heard their name called at the NHL Draft, including 10 first-round selections.
Complete coverage of the U.S. National Junior Team can be found here.
Date | Opponent | Location | Result | U.S. Player of Game |
---|---|---|---|---|
Wed., Dec. 20 | Belarus Pre-Tournament Game |
Northwest Arena Jamestown, N.Y. |
W, 14-0 | NA |
Fri., Dec. 22 | Sweden Pre-Tournament Game |
Erie Insurance Arena Erie, Pa. |
W, 3-1 | NA |
Tues., Dec. 26 | Denmark Preliminary Round |
KeyBank Center Buffalo, N.Y. |
W, 9-0 | Casey Mittelstadt |
Thurs., Dec. 28 | Slovakia Preliminary Round |
KeyBank Center Buffalo, N.Y. |
L, 2-3 | Brady Tkachuk |
Fri., Dec. 29 | Canada Preliminary Round |
New Era Field* Orchard Park, N.Y. |
W (SO) 4-3 | Casey Mittelstadt |
Sun., Dec. 31 | Finland Preliminary Round |
KeyBank Center Buffalo, N.Y. |
W, 5-4 | Joey Anderson |
Tues., Jan. 2 | Russia Quarterfinals |
KeyBank Center Buffalo, N.Y. |
W, 4-2 | Kieffer Bellows |
Thurs., Jan. 4 | Sweden Semifinals |
KeyBank Center Buffalo, N.Y. |
L, 2-4 | Josh Norris |
Fri., Jan. 5 | Czech Republic Bronze-Medal Game |
KeyBank Center Buffalo, N.Y. |
W, 9-3 | Trent Frederic |