New Year’s Eve clash between Canada, USA highlight 2025 World Junior Championship schedule

The 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship begins from December 26, 2024 – January 5, 2025, in Ottawa, Ontario. Canada, the United States, Finland, Latvia and Germany will compete in Group A at the Canadian Tire Centre. Sweden, Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Kazakhstan will form Group B and play at TD Place.

Today, we found out that Canada will face off against the United States in a New Year’s Eve classic.

The opening day of the tournament will feature Sweden playing Slovakia at 12 p.m. ET, the United States facing Germany at 2:30 p.m. ET, Czechia battling Switzerland at 5 p.m. ET and Canada taking on Finland at 7:30 p.m. ET.

“In partnership with the IIHF and our incredible tournament partners, we are so excited to announce the schedule for the upcoming World Juniors in Ottawa,” said Katherine Henderson, president and chief executive officer of Hockey Canada. “It is hard to believe that puck drop is only 100 days away, and we cannot wait to see both venues packed with fans cheering on the best junior hockey players in the world this holiday season.”

The last time these two played on New Year’s Eve was in 2017 when the USA defeated Canada 3-1 in a game that featured Clayton Keller, Tage Thompson, Adam Fox, Jake Oettinger, Thomas Chabot, Matthew Barzal and Anthony Cirelli, to name a few.

“As a partner with Hockey Canada for the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, we are thrilled to provide our members with the opportunity to participate in the World Juniors,” said Debbie Rambeau, executive director of Hockey Eastern Ontario. “The announcement of the tournament schedule is an exciting time and we look forward to announcing more community, player, coach and official activities in the coming months.”

Canada and the USA both played recently in the World Junior Summer Showcase, a showcase tournament for players to prove themselves to earn a roster spot for the World Juniors. Canada lost to the USA by a score of 5-4 in a shootout.

Both teams announced their coaching staff in recent months with the USA bringing back Denver University head coach David Carle as bench boss and bringing back assistants Brett Larson from St. Cloud State University, Steve Miller from the University of Minnesota, and Garrett Raboin from Augustana University.

Meanwhile, Canada will be led by Ottawa 67’s head coach Dave Cameron, with Sylvain Favreau, who led the Drummondville Voltigeurs to a QMJHL Championship, will serve as an assistant coach on Cameron’s staff. The decorated Mike Johnston of the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks will also be joining Cameron’s staff. Johnston makes his return to international play for the first time since 2008-09 when he served as head coach of Canada’s U18 team. The 67-year-old spent two years as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins and a handful of years as an assistant coach and associate coach with the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks. While Memorial Cup Champion coach Chris Lazary of the Saginaw Spirit will also join the staff.

Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis highlighted projected rosters for both Canada and the USA. “The Canadians have the chance to bring back seven players from the 2024 team that fell in the quarterfinals – Macklin Celebrini, Matthew Wood, Brayden Yager, Carson Rehkopf, Easton Cowan, Oliver Bonk and third-string goaltender Scott Ratzlaff. Ellis said. “I expect six of them to be back, with Celebrini set to take center stage with the San Jose Sharks this year.”

Ellis also projected that 10 players could return from last year’s gold medal-winning squad, “A total of 10 players can return from last year’s roster, although I don’t think Sam Hillebrandt will come back as the third goalie,” Ellis said. “Up front, there is absolutely zero reason to split up the Boston College trio of Gabe Perreault, James Hagens and Ryan Leonard. They looked great together in their short time together at the World Junior Summer Showcase and will be leaders on one of the top NCAA teams in the country.”