The IIHF World Junior Championship is international hockey’s premiere under-20 tournament, where the world’s top young talent will compete for the gold medal. Hosted by Minnesota for just the second time in history, the tournament will feature hockey’s future stars representing their nations in front of thousands of passionate hockey fans.
Xcel Energy Center (Saint Paul, MN), home of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, and 3M Arena at Mariucci (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN) are located just 8 miles apart.
For the 2025 U.S. National Junior Team Roster, click here. This year’s roster features two local assistant coaches, as well as eight players from the state of Minnesota. For the all-time WJC roster of players, coaches, and captains, click here.
The official 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship full schedule will be available at a later date.
Ten countries will play a total of 29 tournament games (excluding pre-tournament games).
The ten teams will be split into two groups of five teams each – Group A and Group B. Each team will play the other four teams in its group during the preliminary round.
Following preliminary round play, the top four teams in each group will move on to play in the quarterfinals which is the start of single elimination game play. The winners of each quarterfinal will qualify for the “medal round”.
The medal round includes the semi-final games (two), bronze medal game, and gold medal game. All medal round games will be played at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
The fifth-place team from each group will play each other in a single elimination “Relegation” game. The team that wins will be eligible to play in the 2027 IIHF World Junior Championship; the losing team will be relegated to the international Juniors 1A division for the next hockey season.
Group A will play their preliminary round games at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul; Group B will play their preliminary round games at 3M Arena at Mariucci on the University of Minnesota campus.
Each arena will host two quarter-final games.
All medal round games (two semi-finals, bronze medal game, and gold medal game will be played at Xcel Energy Center.
The relegation game will be played at 3M Arena at Mariucci.
As the host of the 2026 tournament, the United States will play in Group A. The other group placements will be based in part on the final results of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Full-event ticket packages for all 29 games in the tournament will be available to purchase starting Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, at 10 a.m. CT. This includes all preliminary, quarterfinal, semifinal and bronze and gold medal games. Visit 2026.worldjunior.hockey to view all ticket package options. Additional ticket package options and single-game tickets may be available at a later date pending availability.
An all-session ticket package consists of a single seat for all 29 games in the tournament.
Yes, accessible seating is available for both venues. You will be able to indicate your preference for accessible seating during the purchasing process.
Digital tickets will be provided for all ticket packages and will be accessible through the respective venue’s online account manager. More details and instructions will be provided to purchasers by email later in 2025.
You will be notified via email when your tickets are available online. We expect this to take place later in 2025.
Yes, all tickets will be digital. You will be able to transfer them digitally by game.
No, ticket package payments are non-refundable.
Availability of individual game tickets, if any, will be announced at a later date.
You can sign up for the WJC Priority List at WorldJuniorsMN26.com to receive information on future 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship ticket options, when and if they become available.
Please contact tickets@mnsportsandevents.org for further information.
We are planning to stage a multi-day fan fest at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. The event will be family-friendly with something for everyone to do, especially while kids are out of school!
In addition, there will be pre-game activities around 3M Arena at Mariucci for select tournament games. And we are planning to host other FREE events at Rice Park in Saint Paul and at Mall of America in Bloomington.
All of these events will be FREE and open to the public!
