It has already been reported that the Latvian U-20 hockey team will not have to prepare for the World Championship in Division I, Group A in Denmark at the end of the year, as it has been canceled due to the Covid-19 situation together with a number of other championships.
A month ago, the IIHF Council voted to cancel the tournaments for the 2020/21 season, following the recommendations of the IIHF Covid-19 expert group.
On Tuesday, the IIHF reports that previous discussions with the Canadian Hockey Federation and responsible health organizations have concluded that the tournament cannot be held in Edmonton and Reddire at the end of this year and early next year, as previously planned.
For this reason, it has been decided that the “bubble” tournament will take place in Edmonton’s well-known “Rogers Place” arena. Spectators will not be able to attend the live games.
Previously, several Stanley Cup matches were successfully played in this arena.
Taking into account that all ten participants of the tournament will play their games in one arena, the world championship will start a day earlier than usual – on December 25. The last time this happened was in 2005.
The tournament will be opened with a Swiss-Slovak duel, but on the same day Germany – Finland and Russia – USA will also take the field. A day later, the first game will be played by Canada, which will meet with Germany.
In the group tournament phase, three games will be played in one day. Group A includes Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and Germany, while Group B will feature Russia, Sweden, the United States, the Czech Republic and Austria.
The last games of the group tournament will be played on New Year’s Eve. In the meantime, the knockout tournament will be the same as in the previous two years.
The quarter-finals will start on January 2, two days later the semi-finals are planned, but on January 5, the 2021 world champions in the U-20 elite division will be determined.
The IIHF reports that with the cancellation of the lower division championships, none of the ten national units will lose their place in the elite division.
It is known that ten national teams will go to Canada on time, as test matches are still planned for December 20-23.
Last year, the Latvian national team won the second place in Group I of Division I and was unable to return to the strongest teams, which Austria managed to do.
