When it was all said and done, the best and most complete team won the tournament. Sweden might not have been the flashiest or most publicized team, but they were deep at both forward and on defense. Switzerland took them to the wire and they had to mount a pair of furious comebacks to get to the gold medal game, but throughout the tournament, they clicked like a well-coached team should.

Perhaps the early flameouts of the Americans and Canadians will teach the fans of both sides a lesson in staking national and personal pride on the backs of 18-year olds thrown together for a month, but I doubt it. Rather than chalking their losses up to bad luck, questions about team selection dominate the narrative.

The best thing to come of the 2012 Championship was the relegation of a single team to Division I, Group A. The drama, although not seen on TSN, of the Latvia-Denmark relegation final was reportedly thrilling and should continue that way as long as that single game is heads-up survival.

The most disappointing story had to be that of the Swiss. They finished the tournament in eighth place, but were a shootout against the Swedes and a couple of unlucky bounces against the Russians from the semi-finals. They brought a relatively young team to the tournament and should come back next year just as strong. A few lucky bounces might get them into the medal round.

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Denmark took Latvia to OT in the Relegation Final in what has been described as a spirited game, though no one in North America would know because TSN decided this one wasn't worth showing on one of their eight media outlets. Latvia survived and for that they get to go to Ufa next year as part of the elite division in U20 competition thanks to IIHF's one relegation, one promotion change. Latvia will be in tough next year, however, as the Germans won Division I, Group A and will challenge Latvia for the 9th spot in Ufa.

As to the relegation changes, I was initially skeptical. I didn't find the IIHF's arguments for the change particularly compelling, but I was willing to give it a chance. Regardless of the IIHF's reasons, the change is wonderful. While promoting only one team will further separate the divisions, one game for survival creates a situation of extreme desperation for both sides. Hopefully TSN will recognize how much these games mean to the cellar-dwellers and give them some airtime.

As for today's action, not since the Punch-up in Piestany have the Canadians been so disappointed with their finish. The Finns, one of the best teams on paper to start the tournament, get to play for yet another international medal. The Swedes have been quiet and efficient, though they've needed two furious comebacks to make it this far. The enigmatic Russians have alternated between world-beaters and a disinterested team cheating for offense, or so the story goes.

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What a tournament for the underdog bettors. Not only did the pre-tournament favorites, the Americans, miss the medal round, the second-favorites, the Canadians bombed out in the semi-finals. Tomorrow, in a rematch of the final day of the round robin, the third and fourth (or fifth) most-talented rosters face off in the finals as Sweden takes on Russia. Canada is left to play for bronze, and deservedly so.

In yesterday's GDT, I said "Knowing this rivalry, however, for some reason I think this is going to come down to Canada's goaltending and everyone knows how that story ends."

The World Championship is where Canadian junior goaltenders go to gain a reputation as infamous chokers. Never mind that the entire tournament is one giant beer league game, devoid of defense or own-zone support. Never mind that once these kids get behind, the threat of a short-term collapse is near 100%. It's easy to blame the goaltenders, just like beer league superstars do. But Canada's collapse was about the skaters, not the goaltender. Discipline, as is often the case with teenagers, went out the window when they got behind. Things got progressively worse until the second period intermission, and to be honest, the Canadians were lucky the refs swallowed their whistles in the third because Brett Connolly's punch-check should've been called right at the beginning of the period. Put the Russians on a power play there and the Canadians may have spontaneously combusted. Canada was clearly the better team, but they lost their minds when they lost the lead.

Take away all of the childish antics by the Canadians and Finland's collapse was remarkably similar to Russia's third period meltdown. Finland got a two-goal lead by some luck and then scrambled around the zone, hoping Sami Aitokallio would bail them out. The shots by period heavily favored the Swedes: 14-6, 20-7, 16-8 and 7-3 in overtime. Unlike the nightcap, the better team pulled the game out in the end. For his part, Aitokallio was brilliant, stopping 55 of 58 shots and he nearly single-handedly hauled the Finns into the gold medal game.

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After watching the chalk win two high-scoring games, the quarterfinals looked like they were going to be a bust. Then the Czechs took the hated Russians to overtime thanks to a goaltending show for the ages from Petr Mrazek and Andrei Vasilievskiy. My guess is that when I compile the January consensus 100, no one moves as much as Vasilievskiy, ranked 41st in December. Besides Vasilievskiy, the yesterdays headliners were the Danes, who took a sleepwalking Swiss team to overtime before falling and the Granlunds.

While the Swiss won their relegation round matchup, they looked awful in doing so. Denmark, a team that's been overwhelmed by every opponent thus far stayed step-for-step with the Swiss, and may have some hope against the Latvians. Switzerland's round robin was a huge letdown, so there's a good chance that a disappointed bunch of teenagers just coasted through. The Swiss will be back in Ufa next year, and I'd bet on a better performance from them in 2013.

Mikael Granlund took over in the second period against Slovakia, scoring a goal and assisting on two others, both buried by his brother Markus. Mikael ended the game with a goal, three assists and 17/27 in the faceoff circle. Teemu Pulkkinen continued his assault on goaltenders as well - he fired nine shots at the two Slovak goaltenders, bringing his tournament total to 32 shots on goal. On a per game basis, only Swedish forward Mika Zibanejad is in the same class.

WJC hysteria should hit unseen highs today as Canada takes the hated Russians and Sweden takes on the hated Finns.

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Oh the tournament of small sample sizes. The United States collapses against both Finland and the Czech Republic. Then Switzerland hands a quarterfinal spot to the Slovaks with an even bigger collapse. Not to be outdone, the Russians coughed up a three goal lead to Sweden, giving up three goals in sixteen minutes and another in overtime to lose the bye into the semifinals. We could call these colossal choke jobs, or we could remember that these are teenagers guided by the hand of coaches who teach the only way to play with a lead is to do so passively.

And now the real tournament begins. The pre-tournament favorite will battle the Swiss for 7th place, but the Canadian juggernaut will take up the mantle of dreams-squashing superpower in their stead. Based on what we've seen so far, the Swedes should make a run to the finals with a quiet, but complete team and fall to the Canadians, who bring a wealth of top-end talent and a lunchpail narrative with them.

The two teams that could spoil this six-team tournament are the Czechs, with their brick wall of a kid in goal, Peter Mrazek and Finland, with their own brick wall, Sami Aittokallio. Either one of them could have been named the round robin MOP.

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When I first wrote about Nathan Walker, the first Australian with a shot at the NHL...

Nathan Walker is a 5'9" 176 lb forward from Sydney, Australia. At 5'9", Walker is small, but he's got the speed to play in any league. Most people have been denied a chance to see Walker play internationally, where he's competed in the B division of the World Juniors and scored 4 goals in 4 games.

Like Hari, Walker left home to pursue a hockey career and better himself. He left Sydney for the Czech Republic and joined the HC Vitkovice system. He's been better than a point per game player during his time in the Czech Junior Leagues, including 18 points in 10 games in the Under 20 league this season. His performance earned him a promotion to Vitkovice's Extraliga team.

...he still looked like a longshot to make the NHL, let alone hear his name called at the NHL Draft in June.

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Oh the tournament of small sample sizes. As Jaroslav Halak showed NHL fans two years ago, a lucky goalie can turn a short-run tournament on it's ear. Like the Capitals and Penguins, the United States ran into a couple of hot goalies and those goalies bounced the pre-tournament favorite. After throttling Denmark, the Americans were held to just three goals on 93 shots by Sami Aitokallio and Peter Mrazek. While their opponents put up a .968 save percentage John Gibson and Jack Campbell countered with .857 against the Finns and the Czechs. Now the Americans are forced to play for seventh place and pride, and the media will talk about how poor team chemistry and a lack of both snipers and finishers did this team in.

The Canadian media started spinning the tournament narrative as soon as the Czechs potted the empty net goal. The storyline went from a showdown with the Americans for junior supremacy to a revenge fantasy against the Russians. To their credit, TSN was instantly ready for the storyline switch and started hyping the Russians and Swedes. Good for them.

Denmark, Latvia and the United States are locked into the relegation round and there's one more opening for a Group A team.

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Those enigmatic Russians were the big news makers on Day 4. Russia destroyed Latvia, 14-0, to set up a pool showdown with Sweden tomorrow. In their first two games, the Russians looked to be disorganized, undisciplined and lost on defense. They shook the cobwebs loose against Latvia with a superb performance, marked only by some terrible penalties. Most of the wreckage came at the hands of Washington Capitals prospect Yevgeni Kuznetsov who totaled nine points, including a hat trick, and was generally unstoppable.

Russia lost Mikhail Grigorenko, the #2 prospect in the 2012 draft, to an injury mid-way through the first period. Grigorenko's injury is the latest incident in a run of terrible luck for the 2012 eligible players, as five of the top fifteen prospects have now suffered injuries.

Group B's first vs. last seed matchup was a bit less lopsided, which is odd to type considering Canada beat Denmark by eight goals. Denmark, the team with the worst goal differential entering play last night, left goaltender Sebastian Feuk out to dry for most of the first period and Canada took advantage, piling on 15 shots in the first period and opening up a 4-0 lead. When it was over, Canada put 51 pucks on net en route to their 10-2 win. Denmark managed just three shots on goal in the first frame and just 26 for the game, though most of those shots came in garbage time.

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