The 2022 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship is set to get underway in one week, so it’s time for my preview and predictions for this year’s tournament in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, last year’s event was originally supposed to be held by Edmonton and Red Deer, but with fans not being allowed into watch the games, the IIHF moved the tournament solely to Edmonton. This year though, fans will be back in. As of now, it’s still set to be at 100% capacity as there have been no new restrictions on capacity limits from the Alberta government despite the rise of the Omicron variant.
Also due to the pandemic, there were no lower division for the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship last year (D1A, D1B, D2A, D2B, D3), so there was no relegation or promotion, and all ten teams from last year’s tournament returned for this one.
Let’s dive right into my predictions, starting with one player to watch from each of the ten participating teams.
- Austria: Marco Kasper (2022 NHL Draft eligible)
- Canada: Connor Bedard (2023 NHL Draft eligible)
- Czech Republic: Jan Mysak (Montreal – 2020, 48th ovr)
- Finland: Joakim Kemell (2022 NHL Draft eligible)
- Germany: Florian Elias (Undrafted)
- Russia: Matvei Michkov (2023 NHL Draft eligible)
- Slovakia: Juraj Slafkovsky (2022 NHL Draft eligible)
- Sweden: Jesper Wallstedt (Minnesota – 2021, 20th ovr)
- Switzerland: Simon Knak (Nashville – 2021 – 179th ovr)
- United States: Matty Beniers (Seattle – 2021 – 2nd ovr)
Here are the groups for the 2022 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship:
Group A: Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany.
Group B: Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, United States.
Now that we have the groups, it’s time for my game-by-game predictions for the round robin, as well as the playoffs, along with standings for each group.
Predictions
Round Robin
Group A – Edmonton
- December 26th. Finland (5) vs Germany (1)
- December 26th. Czech Republic (2) vs Canada (6)
- December 27th. Austria (0) vs Finland (8)
- December 27th. Germany (3) vs Czech Republic (4) OT
- December 28th. Austria (0) vs Canada (11)
- December 29th. Finland (5) vs Czech Republic (2)
- December 29th. Canada (7) vs Germany (2)
- December 30th. Czech Republic (4) vs Austria (1)
- December 31st. Germany (5) vs Austria (0)
- December 31st Canada (3) vs Finland (2) OT
Group B – Red Deer
- December 26th. Russia (3) vs Sweden (5)
- December 26th. United States (6) vs Slovakia (2)
- December 27th. Russia (7) vs Switzerland (1)
- December 27th. Sweden (6) vs Slovakia (1)
- December 28th. Switzerland (2) vs United States (5)
- December 29th. Slovakia (2) vs Russia (7)
- December 29th. Sweden (4) vs United States (2)
- December 30th. Slovakia (3) vs Switzerland (1)
- December 31st. Switzerland (0) vs Sweden (5)
- December 31st. United States (4) vs Russia (3) OT
Standings
Note: 3 points for a regulation win, 2 points for a OT/SO win, 1 point for an OT/SO loss, and 0 points for a regulation loss.
Top four in each group advance to the playoff round. Fifth place team in each group advance to a best-of-three relegation round, with the winner staying in the top group for 2023 and loser being relegated to Division 1A.
Group A
| Position | Team | GP | W | OTW | OTL | L | PTS | GF | GA | +/- |
| 1st | Canada | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 27 | 6 | +21 |
| 2nd | Finland | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 20 | 6 | +14 |
| 3rd | Czech Republic | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 15 | -3 |
| 4th | Germany | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 16 | -5 |
| 5th | Austria | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 28 | -27 |
Group B
| Position | Team | GP | W | OTW | OTL | L | PTS | GF | GA | +/- |
| 1st | Sweden | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 20 | 6 | +14 |
| 2nd | United States | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 17 | 11 | +6 |
| 3rd | Russia | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 20 | 12 | +8 |
| 4th | Slovakia | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 20 | -12 |
| 5th | Switzerland | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 20 | -16 |
Relegation Round (Best-of-three)
- January 2nd. (A5) Austria (1) vs Switzerland (5)
- January 3rd. (B5) Switzerland (4) vs Austria (0)
Playoff Round
Quarter-Finals
- January 2nd. (A1) Canada (6) vs (B4) Slovakia (1)
- January 2nd. (B1) Sweden (5) vs (A4) Germany (1)
- January 2nd. (A2) Finland (3) vs (B3) Russia (4) OT
- January 2nd (B2) United States (6) vs (A3) Czech Republic (2)
Semi-Finals
- January 4th. (A1) Canada (4) vs (B3) Russia (2)
- January 4th. (B1) Sweden (3) vs (B2) United States (2) OT
Bronze Medal Game
- January 5th. (B2) United States (4) vs (B3) Russia (1)
Gold Medal Game
- January 5th. (A1) Canada (2) vs (B1) Sweden (4)
Awards
- Best Goaltender: Jesper Wallstedt (Sweden)
- Best Defenceman: Owen Power (Canada)
- Best Forward: Cole Perfetti (Canada)
- MVP: Jesper Wallstedt (Sweden)
Thanks to everyone who has been reading. For the entirety of the 2022 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships, I will be making daily recap blogs, as I did last year.
-Cooper.