Ice Hockey at Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games: Everything you need to know

Lausanne 2020 will host the best youth ice hockey players at the third Winter Youth Olympic Games.

All matches will take place at the Malley ice rink in Lausanne from the 10th to the 22nd of January 2020.

Get ready for some hard-hitting, sharp-shooting, net-busting fun as the brightest young talents in the game face off on Swiss ice.

Sweden won the ladies gold medal at Lillehammer 2016 over the Czech Republic, and the USA are defending champions on the men's side after they defeated Canada four years ago in a thrilling seven-goal final.

How to watch ice hockey at Youth Olympic Games

Olympic Channel will stream 300 hours of action from the 13 days of competition in Lausanne 2020 with a dedicated Winter YOG channel available on olympicchannel.com, YouTube and connected devices such as Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Android TV and Roku.

There will be an action-packed daily live show featuring news, highlights, trending stories and interviews in a fun and interactive format streamed on Facebook, Twitter and olympicchannel.com, plus a daily Olympic Channel Podcast featuring insightful interviews with personalities from across the Olympic world.

Fans can also follow Olympic Channel's coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to learn more about the event, while a full schedule of events - including online streaming details can be found here.

Ice hockey location and dates

The ice hockey takes place at the Vaudoise Arena from January 10-22 at Lausanne 2020.

Golden hat-trick for Sweden?

Sweden are reigning double champions having won the women's gold medal at Innsbruck 2012 and Lillehammer 2016, now they have a chance to make it an incredible three-in-a-row in Lausanne.

Finland look most likely to challenge the Swedish reign in the absence of five-time running world champs USA, but it'll take something special to stop their Scandinavian neighbours.

USA first title defenders?

This is the third version of the WYOGs and we've had two different men's winners - Finland in 2012 and the U.S. in 2016 - so Team USA can become the first men's team to successfully defend their title.

They'll have to watch out for arch-rivals Canada, who'll be out to avenge that loss in Lillehammer.

This men's tournament is an unpredictable one.

In 2012, the two finallists were Finland and Russia with the U.S. and Canada battling it out for bronze. In 2016, the finals and semis flipped with U.S.-Canada playing for gold and Finland-Russia going at it for bronze.

Expect those four to be in the mix this time around too.

Which countries have qualified for the Lausanne 2020 Ice Hockey tournament?

With the qualification already decided for the 6-on-6 tournament, here are the teams that we will watch play for podium places in the Olympic headquarters host city:

Women's teams: Switzerland, Sweden, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Japan.

Men's teams: Switzerland, Canada, Russia, USA, Finland, Denmark.

6-on-6 tournament

One goalkeeper plus five players make up a traditional ice hockey team, and that's what we'll see in Lausanne's six-team tournaments.

Both women’s and men’s tournaments consist of six teams made up of 17 athletes (15 players and 2 goalkeepers).

Five players and one goalkeeper will be on the ice.

Each game consists of three 15-minute periods, followed by a penalty shootout if teams remain tied.

Path to the final

Both men's and women's tournaments will have a preliminary round, then semi-finals, followed by the gold and bronze games.

The preliminary round consists of two groups of three teams in which all teams play against each other once (total of 3 games).

After the round robin group stage the top two ranked teams in each group qualify for the semi-finals, which are two-legged affairs, the top team from Group A playing the team that finishes in second from Group B - twice.

The winners move on to the gold medal game and the losers play in the bronze medal game.

Lausanne 2020 6-on-6 Ice Hockey schedule

Friday, January 17

17:00 - 19:00 - SWE-SVK (Women)
20:00 - 22:00 - CZE-SUI (Women)

Saturday, January 18

11:00 - 13:00 - GER-SWE (Women)
14:00 - 16:00 - CAN-RUS (Men)
17:00 - 19:00 - JPN-CZE (Women)
20:00 - 22:00 - USA-FIN (Men)

Sunday, January 19

11:00 - 13:00 - SUI-JPN (Women)
14:00 - 16:00 - DEN-CAN (Men)
17:00 - 19:00 - SVK-GER (Women)
20:00 - 22:00 - SUI-USA (Men)

Monday, January 20

11:00 - 13:00 - Women's Semifinal 1
14:00 - 16:00 - RUS-DEN (Men)
17:00 - 19:00 - Women's Semifinal 2
20:00 - 22:00 - FIN-SUI (Men)

Tuesday, January 21

11:00 - 13:00 - Men's Semifinal 1
14:00 - 16:00 - Men's Semifinal 2
17:00 - 19:00 - Women's Bronze Medal Game
20:00 - 22:00 - Women's Gold Medal Game

Wednesday, January 22

12:00 - 14:00 - Men's Bronze Medal Game
15:00 - 17:00 - Men's Gold Medal Game

Mixed NOC 3-on-3

The big innovation for ice hockey at the Lausanne Games is the Mixed NOC 3-on-3 competition, which replaces the men's and women's skills challenge.

With a full rink divided in two by a hard wall, teams of three players plus a goalkeeper will battle it out in an even faster, goal-frenzied version of ice hockey.

Two games go on side-by-side, one in each end-zone, and as the name suggests, players from different countries and different NOC's (National Olympic Committees) will play together promoting integration and understanding between cultures.

Players from all over the world selected through national skills challenge competitions will be mixed into teams of 11 skaters and two goaltenders.

The goalkeepers will be selected on youth ranking - the same system used to select 6 on 6 net-minders.

Check out what 3-on-3 hockey looks like right here:

3-on-3 Tournament

Both the men's and women's tournaments will consist of eight teams.

Like the 6-on-6 tournament, teams will play a preliminary round followed by semi-finals and medal games.

The eight participating teams will play against each other in a round-robin format, then the top four teams advance to semi-finals.

Winners of the semi-finals advance to gold medal games and the losing teams will play bronze medal games.

Each game will consist of three periods of 16 minutes.

Exciting line changes

Line changes will be signalled by a buzzer which, once it sounds, means the players cannot touch the puck, and must immediatey skate to the bench.

The next line can enter the second the buzzer goes - there are no face-offs between line changes - so we'll see plenty of action on those line changes as players race from the bench to the puck.

The goaltenders change every 8 minutes.

If the scores are even at the end of the third period the game will be decided by a sudden-death penalty shoot-out where one skater from each team takes a shot until a winner is determined.

Lausanne 2020 Mixed NOC 3-on-3 Ice Hockey schedule

Friday, January 10

16:00 - 19:00 - Men's Preliminary Round 1
19:00 - 22:00 - Women's Preliminary Round 1

Saturday, January 11

09:00 - 12:00 - Men's Preliminary Round 2
12:00 - 15:00 - Women's Preliminary Round 2
16:00 - 19:00 - Men's Preliminary Round 3
19:00 - 22:00 - Women's Preliminary Round 3

Sunday, January 12

09:00 - 12:00 - Men's Preliminary Round 4
12:00 - 15:00 - Women's Preliminary Round 4
16:00 - 19:00 - Men's Preliminary Round 5
19:00 - 22:00 - Women's Preliminary Round 5

Monday, January 13

09:00 - 12:00 - Men's Preliminary Round 6
12:00 - 15:00 - Women's Preliminary Round 6
16:00 - 19:00 - Men's Preliminary Round 7
19:00 - 22:00 - Women's Preliminary Round 7

Tuesday, January 14

12:00 - 13:30 - Women's/Men's Semifinal 1
13:30 - 15:00 - Women's/Men's Semifinal 2

Wednesday, January 15

12:00 - 13:30 - Women's/Men's Bronze Medal Game
13:30 - 15:00 - Women's/Men's Gold Medal Game