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Report: Buffalo wins ’18 World Juniors bid

Terry Pegula

Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula speaks during a news conference announcing the new ownership of the NHL hockey team in Buffalo, N.Y., Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011. (AP Photo/David Duprey)

AP

The World Junior Hockey Championships are reportedly coming to Buffalo.

Per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, USA Hockey will announce that Buffalo has been chosen as the host site for the 2018 Worlds, beating out finalists Pittsburgh and St. Louis in the process.

Update: USA Hockey has all but let the cat out of the bag, announcing a press conference on Friday at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo.

It won’t come as a huge surprise that Buffalo got the nod. Since the Terry Pegula-backed HarborCenter opened last year, the site -- along with the connected First Niagara Center, home of the Sabres -- has become a hotbed of hockey activity.

Buffalo was host to the 2015 daft combine and will host again in ’16, along with the NHL Entry Draft. It’s also home to NCAA outfit Canisius, the Buffalo Beauts of the National Women’s Hockey League and, this past spring, hosted the ’15 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships.

As for the World Juniors chronology, the ’16 event will be held in Helsinki, Finland, followed by the ’17 tournament in the shared sites of Montreal and Toronto.

Buffalo last hosted the tournament in 2011, when Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vladimir Tarasenko led the Russians to gold.

Update:

Pegula, of course, owns both the Sabres and the NFL’s Bills.