United States, Canada paired together for 2021 World Championship

The United States and Canada will be in the same group for preliminary-round play at the 2021 IIHF World Championship.

The tournament will be held in May in Minsk, Belarus, and Riga, Latvia. A schedule will be announced at a later date.

The United States and Canada will play in Group B at Arena Riga in Latvia, along with Finland, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Italy and Kazakhstan.

Group A, which will play at Minsk Arena in Belarus, consists of Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus and Great Britain.

Minsk Arena also will host the semifinal and championship games.

The 2020 World Championship, which was scheduled for May 8-24 in Switzerland, was canceled March 21 because of concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

The groups for the 2021 Worlds were set by the 2020 IIHF men's world ranking, which takes into consideration results of World Championships and Olympics during the past four years. Finland won the 2019 World Championship.