KINDERSLEY, Sask. – The first puck is ready to drop at the 2014 World Junior A Challenge. Five of the six competing teams were on the ice for pre-tournament action Friday night before the tournament begins Sunday at the West Central Events Centre in Kindersley.

On Friday, the United States doubled up Canada West 6-3 in Eston, Sask., Russia topped Canada East 5-2 in Unity, Sask., and Denmark blanked the Rosetown Redwings (Senior AAA) 6-0 in Rosetown, Sask.

The tournament opens Sunday when Canada East takes on Switzerland (3:30 p.m. CT), while Canada West meets Denmark in the late game (7:30 p.m. CT). Russia and the United States play their tournament openers on Monday, Dec. 15.

The 2014 World Junior A Challenge will follow the same format as previous years – the six teams will be separated into two groups of three. The group winners will receive an automatic bye to the semifinals, while the second-place and third-place teams will crossover for the quarter-finals.

Group A will feature Canada East, Switzerland and the United States, while Canada West, Denmark and Russia will comprise Group B.

Preliminary round play will run until Tuesday, Dec. 16, with both semifinals taking place Thursday, Dec. 18. The gold medal game, which will be shown nationally on TSN/RDS, the official broadcasters of Hockey Canada, is set for Saturday, Dec. 20 (check your local listings).

All preliminary round games, quarter-finals, semifinals and the bronze medal game can be seen live and free through FASTHockey webcasts at www.hockeycanada.ca/wjac.

Single-game tickets for the 2014 World Junior A Challenge will go on sale at 9 a.m. CT on Sunday, Dec. 14, at the box office at the West Central Events Centre, and online at www.hockeycanada.ca/wjac. Tickets are available for preliminary round games ($15), quarter-finals ($20), semifinals ($25), the bronze medal game ($25), and gold medal game ($30).

Full-tournament ticket packages, including tickets to all 13 games in Kindersley, are still available for only $225. To purchase ticket packages, please CLICK HERE.

Since the first World Junior A Challenge in 2006, more than 200 NHL draft picks have played in the tournament, including 25 first-round selections (Beau Bennett, Alexander Burmistrov, Joe Colborne, Nikita Filatov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Dmitri Kulikov, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Elias Lindholm, Hampus Lindholm, John Moore, Vladislav Namestnikov, Riley Nash, Valeri Nichushkin, Dylan Olsen, David Pastrnak, Jordan Schmaltz, Nick Schmaltz, Jaden Schwartz, Brendan Smith, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Turris, Alexander Wennberg, Andrei Vasilevski, Jakub Vrana and Nail Yakupov).

Seven of the eight gold medal games at the World Junior A Challenge have featured at least one Canadian team. Canada West won gold at the first two tournaments, in 2006 and 2007, before taking the top prize in 2011; it also earned silver in 2008, 2009 and 2012, and won bronze in 2013. Canada East was silver medallist in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011, and claimed bronze in 2008.

NOTE TO MEDIA: Jason La Rose, Hockey Canada’s manager of content services, is on site in Kindersley, and will be the media contact for the 2014 World Junior A Challenge. He can be reached at [email protected] for any interview requests.

For more information on the 2014 World Junior A Challenge, please visit www.hockeycanada.ca/wjac, or follow along via social media at www.facebook.com/wjrac or www.twitter.com/hc_wjac.