The World Junior Championship is coming to America.

USA Hockey has named Chicago, Illinois; Buffalo, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; St. Louis, Missouri; and Tampa, Florida, as the cities in contention to host the 2018 tournament, it was announced Tuesday.

"We had interest of varying levels from more than a dozen entities," said Mike Bertsch, assistant executive director of marketing, communications and events for USA Hockey. "In the end, we’re extremely pleased with the group of finalists. The time and effort each put into the materials that were submitted is impressive and we look forward to continued conversations with each of the finalists."

The decision is likely to be rendered by the end of 2015, with the field set to be further narrowed in the next 60 days.

USA Hockey has hosted the tournament five times in the past: 1982 (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota), 1989 (Anchorage, Alaska), 1996 (Boston, Massachusetts), 2005 (Grand Forks, North Dakota/Thief River Falls, Minnesota), and 2011 (Buffalo/Niagara, New York).

The 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship will be staged in Helsinki, Finland, while the 2017 event will take place in Toronto and Montreal.