World Cup of Hockey to be decided by best-of-3 series; full schedule announced
The 2016 World Cup of Hockey championship will be decided in a best-of-three final series.
Here's the full tournament schedule, as announced by the NHL and NHLPA on Wednesday:
2016 World Cup of Hockey schedule. Final is beat of three. pic.twitter.com/fingBqn5LJ
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) September 9, 2015
Here's the group breakdown for the preliminary round:
| Group A | Group B |
|---|---|
| Canada | Russia |
| United States | Sweden |
| Czech Republic | Finland |
| Team Europe | Team North America |
Team North America will be comprised of players 23 years old and under as of Oct. 1, 2016. The club will be managed by Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman and Edmonton Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli.
Each team will play a round-robin preliminary schedule, facing all three group opponents once.
The top two teams in each group following the preliminary round advance to the semifinals. The first-place team in each group will play an elimination game against the second-place finisher from the other group.
There are also deadlines to name and finalize the rosters for the tournament:
World Cup roster news: 16 players, including at least 2 goalies, must be named by March 1. The balance of the rosters must be in by June 1.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) September 9, 2015