SARNIA, Ont. – After four quarter-finals on Thursday, the semifinal match-ups have been decided at the 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. Both semifinals on Friday will be shown on TSN and RDS, the official broadcasters of Hockey Canada.
In Thursday’s early quarter-finals, Finland topped Slovakia 5-1, while the United States beat Canada Black 4-1. In the late games, Russia knocked off Canada Red 4-1, while Sweden blanked Canada White 2-0.
The semifinal schedule on Friday includes:
Sweden vs. United States 3 p.m. ET/noon PT Across the TSN network/RDS Russia vs. Finland 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT TSN2/RDS
Both semifinals will be played at the RBC Centre in Sarnia.
The semifinal winners will meet in Saturday’s gold medal game at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT (TSN2/RDS), while the bronze medal game will face off Saturday at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT (TSN2/RDS).
Single-game tickets for the semifinals are on sale online or at the RBC Centre box office. For more information on tickets, including how to purchase, CLICK HERE.
The four teams that fell short in Thursday’s quarter-finals will be on the ice Friday at The Shores Recreation Centre in Lambton Shores, Ont., for placement games.
Seventh-place game Slovakia vs. Canada Black 3 p.m. ET/noon PT Fifth-place game Canada White vs. Canada Red 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT
The placement games will be available live and free through FASTHockey webcasts off the game summary pages at www.hockeycanada.ca/wu17.
The 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge brings together the top players in the world born in 1998 or later. The under-17 program is the first step in Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence. Many players who compete at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge go on to represent Canada with the National Men’s Under-18 Team, National Junior Team and National Men’s Team.
Since the first under-17 tournament (then known as the Quebec Esso Cup) in 1986, more than 1,300 NHL draft picks have played, including 11 of the last 14 first-overall selections (Ilya Kovalchuk, 2001; Rick Nash, 2002; Marc-André Fleury, 2003; Alexander Ovechkin, 2004; Erik Johnson, 2006; Patrick Kane, 2007; John Tavares, 2009; Taylor Hall, 2010; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 2011; Nathan MacKinnon, 2013; Aaron Ekblad, 2014).
For more information on the 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, please visit www.hockeycanada.ca/wu17, or follow along via social media at www.facebook.com/worldu17 or www.twitter.com/hc_wu17.