The 2025 World Junior Championships are here as the ten best nations in the world put together the best junior team possible to compete for the chance at a world championship gold.

This year, you'll be able to follow rising hockey stars on their path to the NHL like James Hagens, Porter Martone, and Berkly Catton.

• Team USA Roster For 2025 World Juniors Led By James Hagens, Ryan Leonard
  
• Watch Elite Junior And College Hockey All Season With A FloHockey Subscription
• Canada Announces Final Roster For 2025 WJC
• Follow FloHockey's Coverage Of The 2025 World Junior Championship

Competition started on Dec. 26 and will go through Jan. 5, and will feature elite youth prospects from all over the world.

Whether you're a first-time viewer or a seasoned fan, understanding how the World Juniors 2025 tournament progresses is crucial for following the action from start to finish. In this guide, we’ll break down the tournament structure and key dates.

2025 World Juniors Hockey Tournament Format And Relegation Game Explained

Each year, the top ten ranked hockey nations in the world put together a roster of their best under-20 players to convene for a multi-round tournament to earn the title of IIHF World Junior champion. This year, the tournament is in Ottawa, Canada.

In 2025, the tournament follows a similar format to previous seasons. The tournament uses a three point system:

• 3 points for a winning team at the conclusion of regulation time
• 1points for both teams at the conclusion of regulation time if the game is tied
  • An additional point is earned for the team winning in a 5-minute overtime, or the penalty-shot shootout if the teams are still tied following overtime
• 0 points for a team losing the game in regulation time

Similar to the NHL regular season rules, overtime is played with each team icing three skaters and a goalie.

The tournament starts with two round-robin tournaments five teams each and then moves into single-elimination playoff games.

Ten teams are divided into two, five-team groups in a preliminary round, also called the group stage. After a single round-robin series in each group, the top four teams as scored by points in each group advance to the playoff rounds. 

Relegation Game

The fifth place teams move to the relegation round. The winner play in the next IIHF World Junior Championship. The loser is relegated to the U20 World Championships Division I Group A.

Quarterfinal & Semifinal Games

Based on placements from the group stage, the remaining eight teams move into single-elimination playoffs to compete in a cross-over quarterfinal game. The top placed team in one group play the lowest placed team from the other group, and so forth.

Heading into the semifinal round, the remaining four teams are reseeded based on the following criteria:

1. Placement in their group
2. Points in the group stage
3. Goal difference in the group stage
4. Goals scored in the group stage
5. Seeding coming into the tournament

Finally, the semifinal winners move into the Gold medal game while the losers play for the bronze medal.

How To Watch The 2025 World Junior Championship

The 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship will air on TSN and RDS on television in Canada. The tournament will be streamed on TSN+ in Canada, as well. 

In the United States, NHL Network will be the television home of the World Junior Championship. Streaming information for USA is not currently available.

Follow FloHockey's Coverage Of Team USA At The WJC

FloHockey is providing comprehensive editorial and video coverage of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship. With a team of content creators on site and leading WJC analyst Chris Peters providing stories and columns throughout the event, make FloHockey your home to learn more about the 2025 World Juniors. FloHockey will be following Team USA and Team Canada closely, while tracking the rest of the tournament on site. See all the stories here.

2025 Full World Junior Championship Schedule

Thursday, Jan. 2 

• Relegation: Germany vs Kazakhstan, Canadian Tire Centre, 11 a.m. ET
• Quarterfinal: Sweden vs Latvia, TD Place, 12:00 p.m. ET
• Quarterfinal: USA vs Switzerland, Canadian Tire Centre, 2:30 p.m. ET
• Quarterfinal: Finland vs Slovakia, TD Place, 5:00 p.m. ET
• Quarterfinal: Czechia vs Canada, Canadian Tire Centre, 7:30 p.m. ET

Saturday, Jan. 4

• Semifinal: Canadian Tire Centre, 3:30 p.m. ET
• Semifinal: Canadian Tire Centre, 7:30 p.m. ET

Sunday, Jan. 5

• Bronze Medal game: Canadian Tire Centre, 3:30 p.m. ET
• Gold Medal game: Canadian Tire Centre, 7:30 p.m. ET

IIHF WJC Scores 2025 On Tuesday, Dec. 31

Group A

• Finland 3 - 0 Latvia

Group B

• Kazakhstan 1 - 3 Switzerland

IIHF WJC Scores 2025 On Monday, Dec. 30

Group A

• Germany 3 - 4 Latvia (OT)

Group B

• Slovakia 5 - 4 Kazakhstan (OT)

IIHF WJC Scores 2025 On Sunday, Dec. 29

Group A

• USA 3 - 4 Finland (OT)
• Canada 3 - 0 Germany

Group B

• Switzerland 5 - 7 Sweden
• Czechia 4 - 2 Slovakia

IIHF WJC Scores 2025 On Saturday, Dec. 28

Group A

• Latvia 1 - 5 USA

Group B

• Kazakhstan 2 - 14 Czechia

IIHF WJC Scores 2025 On Friday, Dec. 27

Group A

• Germany 1 - 3 Finland
• Latvia 3 - 2 Canada

Group B

• Switzerland 1 - 2 Slovakia
• Sweden 8 - 1 Kazakhstan

IIHF WJC Scores 2025 On Thursday, Dec. 26

Group A

• USA 10 - 4 Germany
• Finland 0 - 4 Canada

Group B

• Slovakia 2 - 5 Sweden
• Czechia 5 - 1 Switzerland

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