OREANDA-NEWS. From December 25 to January 5 in the Canadian city of Edmonton, the matches of the Ice Hockey Junior Championship will be held.

Ten national teams will take part the tournament, they are divided into two groups. The group A includes the teams of Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and Germany. The teams of Russia, USA, Austria, Czech Republic and Sweden form the group B. The top four teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals. Due to the cancellation of the world championships in the lower divisions at the end of the tournament in Edmonton, no one will leave the elite.

Hockey players, whose age has not yet reached 20 years, arrived in the territory, where all athletes will live in self-isolation, before December 13; from December 18 they began training. However, representatives of the national teams of Germany and Sweden were tested positive for coronavirus and started training later.

The teams of Switzerland and Slovakia will play in the opening match of the world championship, the game will start at 19:00 UTC.