The National Team Development Program heads into its first international break of the season, featuring both the Under-17 Team and Under-18 Team crossing borders.

The U17s travel over east to Truro, Nova Scotia for the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

The World U17 Hockey Challenge is the group's first international tournament, which is hosted annually by Hockey Canada. The tournament features the future stars of the game, with all competing players under the age of 17.

This year's competing teams are Canada Red,  Canada White, Czechia, Finland, Sweden and the United States. 

Team USA owns six first-place finishes at the event, nine second-place finishes and three times in third place. 

The Under-17 Team took down Canada White, 6-4, on Halloween night (Oct. 31) in its lone pre-tournament game, then get into tournament play today taking on Finland (Nov. 3) and Canada Red (Nov. 4).

The Under-18 Team will travel to Ulricehamn, Sweden to compete in the November U18 Five Nations tournament, that also includes host Sweden, Finland, Czechia and Switzerland in a round-robin tournament.

Team USA competes in four games in five days as they play Switzerland (Nov. 5), Finland (Nov. 7), Czechia (Nov. 8) and Sweden (Nov. 9).