Colleges around the country have reached their halfway point and now send their students home for the holidays. However, a select handful of college hockey players receive the call to represent their countries’ colors at the World Junior Hockey Championships over their breaks. The IIHF World Junior Championships is an annual tournament with countries all over the world constructing their best roster of players under the age of 20. This year, the top tier will consist of the United States, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Russia, Denmark and Belarus. The U.S. has big shoes to fill with not only being crowned champions a year ago but also playing on their own soil this year in Buffalo, New York.
Most of the cream of the crop players in the NHL played in this tournament at some point in time, so this is a great honor to the junior players. But these kids get no break. They go from playing every weekend in the NCAA to representing their countries against the best U20 players, and then turning around and getting right back into NCAA action. On the United States roster, there are 23 players, and 19 of them are NCAA division one players. The University of Minnesota-Duluth leads the way with loaning the national team five players.
What I think about most every year at this time is how far American and college hockey has come over the years. This world junior team has not always been NCAA dominated, previously the USA Hockey board would look to junior hockey teams and recruit their players to wear the red, white, and blue. Since college players have been incorporated, the U.S. has seen great success and been a threat to run the table every year. In the previous eight tournaments, the U.S. has come home with a medal 5 times (3 gold, 2 bronze). The future of the USA Hockey looks quite bright if they can keep developing our college players the way that we are.
Last year the hero for the Americans was Troy Terry out of Denver University. Terry was sensational for the U.S., scoring three goals during a seven-round shootout in the semifinals against Russia, securing a trip to the gold medal game. But Terry was not done as he would eventually score the game winner in the shootout against a very strong Canadian team and secure the gold hardware.
This year, the U.S. is going to thrive off Casey Mittelstadt. A Minnesota product, this 19-year-old phenom comes into the tournament with quite the resume. Mittelstadt currently plays for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and has racked up 17 points (5 goals, 12 assists) in 19 games. He was also drafted 8th overall this year by the Buffalo Sabres in the NHL Draft. If he can be electric this tournament I don’t think any team is going to stop him and his teammates from winning a gold for a second year in a row.
The tournament starts off in pool play this week and the American schedule is as follows so you do not miss a game. Mark your calendars for the 29th with the U.S. and Canada facing off in a rematch of last year’s gold medal game.
Tuesday December 26th vs. Denmark
Thursday December 28th vs. Slovakia
Friday December 29th vs. Canada
Sunday December 31st vs. Finland