2023 IIHF World Junior Championship

The 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship was the 47th edition of the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, held between December 26, 2022 and January 5, 2023. It was won by Canada, in overtime of the gold-medal game. Czechia won the silver, their first medal since 2005.
The venue was originally scheduled to be Novosibirsk and Omsk, Russia, but Russia's hosting rights were pulled in February 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The replacement hosts were Halifax, Nova Scotia and Moncton, New Brunswick, both in Canada. It was the 18th time Canada has hosted the tournament, and the third consecutively.
The relegation round was revived, after a two-year hiatus due to the 2021 Division I, II, and III tournaments having been cancelled, and in 2022, both Russia and Belarus were automatically expelled from the competition.
==Venues==
On May 23, 2018, the IIHF announced Novosibirsk, Russia, as host city. Novosibirsk was to host Group A matches, while the city of Omsk was to host Group B matches.
In February 2022, in condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) called for Russia to be stripped of hosting rights to all international sporting events. Russia's hosting of the World Juniors and 2023 IIHF World Championship was scheduled to be discussed in a meeting of the IIHF council on February 28, 2022. The IIHF suspended Russia and Belarus from international ice hockey until further notice, and stripped Russia of its hosting rights for the World Junior Championships.
In late-March 2022, Sportsnet journalist Jeff Marek reported that the IIHF had considered Canada as a possible host country for the tournament, which would make it the third consecutive World Junior Championship to be hosted in the country (the previous two tournaments have been hosted in Alberta with Edmonton as the main host city, but were held in a "bubble" behind closed doors and postponed to August 2022 respectively due to the COVID-19 pandemic). On May 5, the IIHF and Hockey Canada announced that Halifax and Moncton would be the hosts of the tournament, beating out announced bids by Regina/Saskatoon, Ottawa/Quebec City, and London/Waterloo. It marks the 20th anniversary of Halifax's previous hosting of the tournament in 2003.
==Teams==
The groups were announced on August 17, 2022, with teams being grouped based on rankings of performance over the previous five tournaments.
;Group A (Halifax)
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;Group B (Moncton)
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==Preliminary round==
===Group A===
Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD 	Pts	Qualification
1 	 	4 	3	0 	1 	0	24	6 	18 	10 	Advance to quarterfinals
2 	(H) 	4 	3	0 	0 	1	29	8 	21 	9 	Advance to quarterfinals
3 	 	4 	2	1 	0 	1	16	7 	9 	8 	Advance to quarterfinals
4 	 	4 	1	0 	0 	3	7 	22	−15	3 	Advance to quarterfinals
5 	 	4 	0	0 	0 	4	2 	35	−33	0 	Advance to relegation playoff
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===Group B===
Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD 	Pts	Qualification
1 	 	4 	3	0 	0 	1	19	11	8 	9 	Advance to quarterfinals
2 	 	4 	2	0 	1 	1	12	11	1 	7 	Advance to quarterfinals
3 	 	4 	2	0 	1 	1	14	12	2 	7 	Advance to quarterfinals
4 	 	4 	0	3 	0 	1	11	12	−1 	6 	Advance to quarterfinals
5 	 	4 	0	0 	1 	3	4 	14	−10	1 	Advance to relegation playoff
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==Relegation round==
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Note: was relegated for the 2024 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. was promoted for the 2024 Championships.
==Playoff round==
Teams that won their quarterfinal match were reseeded for the semi-finals in accordance with the following ranking system:
#Higher position in their respective group
#Greater number of points
#Better goal differential (GD)
#Greater number of goals scored (GF)
#Higher seeding coming into the tournament (As determined by their final placement at the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships).
Rank	Team	Group	 	 	 	 	
1 	 	A 	1	10	+18	24	4
2 	 	B 	1	9 	+8 	19	5
3 	 	A 	2	9 	+21	29	1
4 	 	B 	2	7 	+1 	12	2
5 	 	A 	3	8 	+9 	16	3
6 	 	B 	3	7 	+2 	14	9
7 	 	B 	4	6 	–1 	11	8
8 	 	A 	4	3 	–15	7 	6
===Quarterfinals===
===Semifinals===
===Bronze medal game===
The United States defeated Sweden in a 8–7 thriller, the most goals in a single World Juniors match since an 18 goal match between Canada and Germany in 2021. Chaz Lucius scored a hat-trick after a deflection off Swedish goaltender Carl Lindbom found its way to Lucius, who slotted it in the side netting to score the winning goal in overtime.
===Gold medal game===
Canada lead 1-0 in the first period and managed a 2-0 lead in the second. Czechia would tie the game in the third period and sent the game into overtime. Dylan Guenther would score the overtime winner to earn the 20th gold medal for Canada.
==Division I==
see 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships – Division I
==Division II==
see 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships – Division II
==Division III==
see 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships – Division III
==References==
Category:2023 in ice hockey
Category:IIHF World U20 Championships