COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - USA Hockey announced today that the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team will hold a four-day training camp Dec. 15-18 in Minneapolis. Five practices are scheduled at the University of Minnesota's Mariucci Arena, while a pre-tournament game at Minnesota State University is set for Dec. 17. Team USA will defend its gold medal at the 2014 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Malmo, Sweden, Dec. 26, 2013-Jan. 5, 2014.

The preliminary roster for the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team will be unveiled in early December.

From Minneapolis, training camp will move on to Angelholm, Sweden, Dec. 19-23. The U.S. will play pre-tournament games Dec. 20 vs. Sweden and Dec. 22 vs. Finland. The final 23-player U.S. National Junior Team roster will be announced Dec. 23.

In August, 44 players attended the 2013 U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. Complete details from that camp can be found here.

NOTES: Practices at Mariucci Arena will be open to the public ... Team USA has medaled in three of the last four IIHF World Junior Championships, winning gold in 2010 and 2013, plus bronze in 2011 ... Don Lucia (Plymouth, Minn.), head coach of the University of Minnesota men's ice hockey team, was named head coach of the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team on March 23. Bob Motzko (St. Cloud, Minn.), head coach of the St. Cloud State University men's ice hockey team, Greg Brown (Scituate, Mass.), associate head coach of the Boston College men's ice hockey team, and David Lassonde (Denver, Colo.), assistant coach of the University of Denver men's ice hockey team, will serve as assistant coaches. The video coordinator is Dan Muse (Clinton, Conn.), assistant coach of Yale University's men's ice hockey team ... Jim Johannson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations, is serving as the general manager of Team USA for the fifth consecutive year ... Don Waddell (Detroit, Mich.), an international consultant to USA Hockey, is assisting with player identification for Team USA ... Team USA will compete in a group with Canada, Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia at the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship. For more information about the tournament, click here.