The 2015 Junior Club World Cup kicked off on Monday in Moscow, the fifth year of the tournament. Much like the KHL’s opening night, there was great fanfare with an opening ceremony that featured projection mapping on an impressive scale.
The JCWC opening ceremony featured a five-minute 3D projection-mapped experience that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen at a hockey game before. It starts out with the ice breaking open to Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerilla Radio,” before bringing out skaters who face-off in the rink’s shattered remains. Also, Pavel Datsyuk makes an appearance.
Watch the opening ceremony below.
Representing the U.S. is the USHL’s Chicago Steel, who beat Kazakhstan’s Snow Leopards Astana 3-0 on Monday. They followed that up with a 3-2 win over Latvia’s HK Riga on Tuesday.
The U.S. is the only team to capture a medal in three consecutive years since the tournament started five years ago and the Steel represent the U.S.’s hope of extending that streak to four years.
Other teams at the tournament include Finland’s TPS Turku, Sweden’s Djurgårdens IF, Belarus’ Dinamo-Shinnik Bobruisk, and the Russian teams Avto Yekaterinburg and Chaika Niznhy Novgorod. Canadian junior teams do not participate in the tournament.