2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships

The 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship is the 42nd Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. It is being hosted by the city of Buffalo, New York at the KeyBank Center and HarborCenter. It began on December 26, 2017, and ended with the gold medal game being played on January 5, 2018. This marks the sixth time that the United States has hosted the IHWJC and the second time that Buffalo has done so, having hosted in 2011.

A preliminary round game between Canada and the United States was also played outdoors at New Era Field in nearby Orchard Park, New York, on December 29, 2017. It marked the first ever outdoor game played during an IIHF World Championship at the junior level.

Host selection
On July 28, 2015, USA Hockey named the five initial finalists for hosting the event:
 * Buffalo, New York
 * Pittsburgh
 * St. Louis
 * Chicago
 * Tampa, Florida

Chicago and Tampa were eliminated on September 15. Buffalo was chosen as the host site on December 3, with a formal announcement on December 4. For the first time in WJC history, one of the games (Canada vs USA, on December 29) was played outdoors.

Officials
The following officials have been assigned by the International Ice Hockey Federation to officiate the 2018 World Junior Championships.

Referees
 * Andris Ansons
 * 🇨🇦 Alexandre Garon
 * Jacob Grumsen
 * 🇫🇮 Mikko Kaukokari
 * 🇷🇺 Artur Kulev
 * 🇦🇹 Manuel Nikolic
 * 🇩🇪 Gordon Schukies
 * 🇨🇿 Robin Šír
 * 🇸🇪 Mikael Sjöqvist
 * 🇺🇸 Stephen Thomson
 * 🇺🇸 Jeremy Tufts
 * Marc Wiegand

Linesmen
 * Franco Castelli
 * 🇫🇮 Markus Hägerström
 * 🇺🇸 William Hancock II
 * Rene Jensen
 * 🇳🇴 Jon Kilian
 * 🇨🇦 Dustin McCrank
 * 🇨🇿 Jiří Ondráček
 * 🇸🇰 Peter Šefčík
 * 🇷🇺 Alexander Sysuev
 * 🇸🇪 Emil Yletyinen

Format
The four best ranked teams from each group of the preliminary round advanced to the quarterfinals, while the last-placed team from both groups played a relegation round in a best-of-three format to determine the relegated team.

Preliminary round
''All times are local. (Eastern Standard Time – UTC-5)''

Scoring leaders
Source: IIHF

Goaltending leaders
(minimum 40% team's total ice time)

Source: IIHF

Tournament awards
Reference: Most Valuable Player
 * Forward: 🇺🇸 Casey Mittelstadt

All-star team
 * Goaltender: 🇸🇪 Filip Gustavsson
 * Defencemen: 🇸🇪 Rasmus Dahlin, 🇨🇦 Cale Makar
 * Forwards: 🇺🇸 Casey Mittelstadt, 🇨🇿 Filip Zadina, 🇺🇸 Kieffer Bellows

IIHF best player awards
 * Goaltender: 🇸🇪 Filip Gustavsson
 * Defenceman: 🇸🇪 Rasmus Dahlin
 * Forward: 🇺🇸 Casey Mittelstadt