The International Ice Hockey Federation World Under-18 Championship is under a week away now, with action starting on April 14. While the tournament doesn’t enjoy the same exposure in North America as the World Junior Championship, there are several ways to follow the U18 action.

Let’s have a look, shall we?

FASTHockey To Carry Team USA’s Games at World U18s

What some of you readers may not know about your friendly neighborhood hockey blogger, is that my first passion is sports broadcasting.

Well, I am happy to tell you that I will be serving as the play-by-play broadcaster for each of Team USA’s games at the 2011 IIHF World Under-18 Championship in Germany. You can catch every U.S. game via live video stream on FASTHockey.com.

Of course I’d encourage you all to tune in. If you love international hockey, or you love prospects and want to get a glimpse into what the future of the NHL looks like, I highly recommend you taking in at least a few of the broadcasts. For many of the European prospects that are eligible for this year’s and next year’s draft, this may be your only chance to see them in action. The same goes for the U.S. U18 squad.

I’ve been lucky enough to cover a few events for FASTHockey over the last two years, including last year’s World U18 Championship in Belarus. Marc Ruskin and his staff at FASTHockey have done a fabulous job of making available tons of great hockey to the masses through live web streaming. I hope you’ll check it out.

USAHockey.com has the complete broadcast schedule here.

(I just want to quickly thank USA Hockey and FASTHockey for making me a part of the World Under-18 Championship. It’s an honor to be able to broadcast the tournament again, as it truly is one of my favorite events in the game.)

After the jump, find out what kind of U18 coverage you can expect from USofH, helpful tournament links and an addition to the United States of Hockey family.

Coverage on UnitedStatesOfHockey.com

Now just because I’m broadcasting doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find post-game reaction and more on the United States of Hockey. My plan is to keep updating you about the goings on in American hockey and the World Under-18 Championship while abroad. I should have more info on just how often I’ll be able to post once I get over to Germany. I’ll be taking off on Sunday, so there will be a bit of a lull here on the blog for a few days and your patience is appreciated.

When I get there, I hope to be able to provide some insight and analysis, along with player and coach interviews along the way.

Other ways to follow the tournament:

USAHockey.com will be the place to go for the official post-game recaps and box scores. Additionally, the NTDP blog will likely have plenty of good content throughout the tournament. I’ll be linking to a lot of that content along the way.

NHL.com often has plenty of U18 related content including player features and recaps of the big games. Mike Morreale and Adam Kimelman are usually manning the prospect updates, so you’re in good hands there.

IIHF.com is the place for live game stats and various tournament info, like recaps, statistical leaders and team stats.

—–

USofH On The Air

Saturday, at 11:45 a.m. CDT, I’ll be joining Dean Millard on The Pipeline Show (TEAM 1260 in Edmonton) to chat about Team USA and the World Under-18 Championship. You can catch a live audio stream of the show here. If you can’t tune in on Saturday, be sure to check out the archive on thepipelineshow.com.

By the way, TPS is probably one of the most comprehensive and informative radio shows out there when it comes to hockey prospects (and I’m not just saying that because they’re having me on). If you’re into learning more about the stars of tomorrow, the show and its blog should become part of your regular hockey media consumption.

——-

IIHF Men’s World Championship Coverage

The United States of Hockey will be providing full coverage of the 2011 IIHF World Men’s Championship. Since I’ll be in Germany when the roster is released, I’m pleased to introduce Patrick Hoffman, who currently writes for the Red Light District Hockey Blog and Kukla’s Korner.

Patrick will be handling the Men’s National Team posts until I get back. He’s done a great job on his other blogs and has a real knowledge and passion for the game. I look forward to seeing his work for USofH.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for my next post which will be coming to you from Crimmitschau, Germany. As always you can keep track of me in between posts on Twitter.