2018 World Junior Update: Round Robin Play Concludes

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Sunday marked the final day of Round Robin play and set the stage for the quarterfinals, beginning on Tuesday.

Two Flyers players were already done Round Robin play on Saturday. Carter Hart and Canada had locked up the top spot in Group A, while Maksim Sushko and Belarus were already locked into a spot in the relegation round with losses in all four Round Robin games.

The other eight countries were all in action on Sunday, setting the stage for the quest for the gold medal in the days ahead.

Czech Republic claimed a 6-5 win over Switzerland in a wild affair to open the day's action.

The second game of the day featured just as much excitement. Team USA jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead, before Finland rallied back to make a game of it. Two third-period goals tied the game for Finland before Adam Fox scored in the final two minutes to give USA the victory.

Slovakia rolled past Denmark, 5-1, in the third game, pushing Denmark to the relegation round as well.

In the final game of the day, the only two Flyers prospects in action both took the ice. Sweden narrowly escaped with a 4-3 win in a shootout over Russia.

German Rubtsov took a slashing penalty in the game and had one shot and was a minus-1 in 19:18 of ice time.

Linus Hogberg was once again limited as Sweden's seventh defenseman, taking just five shifts in the game for a total of 2:15 of ice time, and did not play in the third period or overtime.

With Round Robin complete, the schedule is set for the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Czech Republic and Finland open the action at noon on Tuesday. Canada plays Switzerland at 4 p.m. Sweden faces Slovakia at 6 p.m. and USA faces Russia at 8 p.m.

Belarus and Denmark play the first of three games in the relegation round at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

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