For the first time since 2004, the World Cup of Hockey will be taking place from September 17th until October 1st, according to its official website. This will be the third World Cup of Hockey. All games are being played in the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

The semi-final games will be played September 24th and September 25th, and the championship series starts on September 27th, according to ESPN.com.  All games will be aired on ESPN.

According to the World Cup of Hockey website, the 2016 World Cup of Hockey will feature eight teams competing for a best-on-best international hockey championship. The eight teams participating in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey are Team Canada, Team Czech Republic, Team Finland, Team Russia, Team Sweden, Team USA, Team Europe and Team North America (any player under the age of 23).

The tournament is a joint effort of the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) and National Hockey League (NHL), in cooperation with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

According to ESPN, the World Cup of Hockey is back after a 12 year absence. Arrowhead senior Nick Noll is a big fan of hockey and is glad to see the World Cup of Hockey comeback after a 12 year absence.

“I am excited to see it comeback so far the games have been awesome and can’t wait to see who wins it.” said Noll.

For this year’s tournament, the eight teams were separated into two divisions: group A (Canada, United States, Europe, and Czech Republic) and group B (Sweden, North America, Russia, and Finland). The teams in each group play each other in a round robin style.

The top two teams in each group will move on to a four team tournament that will determine  the championship.

The round robin tournament finished Thursday, September 22nd. Canada and Europe made it out of Group A, and Sweden and Russia made it out of Group B.

The semi-final games will be played September 24th and September 25th, and the championship series starts on September 27th, according to ESPN.com.  All games will be aired on ESPN.