By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The quest for a gold medal at World Juniors continued for two Flyers prospects on Thursday, as Carter Hart and Canada and Linus Hogberg and Sweden both played in semifinal games.
Both Flyers prospects will be on opposing sides in the Gold Medal Game on Friday night, as both Canada and Sweden claimed victories in Thursday's semifinals.
Here is how the day's action played out.
Sweden vs. USA
This game was a goaltender's duel at the start with Joseph Woll of the US and Filip Gustavsson of Sweden stopping everything sent their way in the first half of the game.
A power play for Sweden finally broke the ice with 6:30 to play in the second period, as Elias Pettersson fired a shot past Woll to put Sweden on the board first. The 1-0 score held through the end of the second period.
But Sweden broke things open in the third. Lias Andersson scored off a two-on-one at 6:17 of the period. The US had a chance to get back in the game with a power play, but surrendered shorthanded goals to Oskar Steen and Axel Jonsson Fjallby in 38 seconds. Sweden's three goals came within 2:08 to open up a 4-0 lead and chase Woll from the game for Jake Oettinger.
The US did mount a bit of a comeback, getting goals from Kieffer Bellows and Brady Tkachuk to cut the lead to 4-2 with 3:01 to play. The US also had a power play with 2:02 to play. But Sweden held the lead and fended off the US to advance to the Gold Medal Game.
Hogberg was once again listed as the seventh defenseman for Sweden and played in just 2:22 of the game while being a plus-2.
Canada vs. Czech Republic
Things didn't start off so well for Canada, as Filip Zadina scored at 5:55 of the first period on Czech Republic's second shot of the game on Hart. But Canada took over from there. They scored two goals in the last half of the first period to take a 2-1 lead and opened up a 6-1 lead by the end of the second period.
The two teams traded goals in the third, sealing a 7-2 win for Canada. Drake Batherson had three of the seven goals for Canada. Zadina had the other goal for Czech Republic to bring his total to two in the game.
Hart made 18 saves on 20 shots in the game, picking up his fourth win of the tournament.
Relegation Round: Belarus vs. Denmark
Denmark opened up a 2-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes and held the two-goal lead through 40 minutes, putting Belarus on the brink.
But a two-man advantage for Belarus allowed them to get back into the game, and Flyers prospect Maksim Sushko led the charge. Sushko scored the first goal for Belarus and assisted on the second, as Belarus tied the game at two and forced the game into overtime.
After a scoreless 10 minutes, the game went to a shootout where Denmark claimed the win by a 4-2 decision in the five-round shootout.
Sushko had three shots and was a minus-1 in a whopping 28:37 of ice time to go along with his two points in the game.
For the tournament, Sushko had two goals and six assists for eight points in six games, setting a new record for any player in World Juniors from Belarus. He was also selected as one of Belarus' top three players in the tournament.
Final Day
With the Relegation Round complete, there are only two games on the schedule, the two medal games.
USA will face Czech Republic in the Bronze Medal Game at 4 p.m. And then the main event between Sweden and Canada in the Gold Medal Game will follow at 8 p.m. to wrap up the 2018 World Junior Championships.
