By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The 2018 World Junior Championships have hit the tournament stage with the quarterfinals taking place on Tuesday. For two Flyers prospects, the tournament will continue on Thursday in the semifinals.
Carter Hart and Canada and Linus Hogberg and Sweden will advance to the semifinals on Thursday with their teams picking up wins on Tuesday. For German Rubtsov, the tournament came to an end with Russia's loss to Team USA.
Here's how the quarterfinals played out.
Czech Republic vs. Finland
The first game of the day went the distance. Czech Republic scored the only goal of the first period, but the teams traded goals in the second period to ultimately end up tied, 2-2, through 40 minutes.
Finland pulled ahead with a goal by Kristian Vesalainen at 6:30 of the third period and carried that lead into the final moments of the third. With the goalie pulled, Czech Republic tied the game on a goal by Filip Zadina with 2:26 to play in regulation.
Ten minutes of 4-on-4 overtime could not decide the game, so things went to a shootout. Kristian Reichel and Martin Necas scored for the Czechs, while goalie Josef Korenar made four saves on an already incredible day, finishing with 51 saves in the 70 minutes of game play as the Czech Republic stunned Finland with a 4-3 win to advance to Thursday's semifinal round.
Canada vs. Switzerland
Flyers prospect goalie Carter Hart was in goal for Canada, but didn't see much action.
This one was essentially over before it started. Not only did Swiss head coach Christian Wohlwend publically say that his team had "no shot" against the Canadians, but Canada made sure to put a margin on Switzerland early.
Canada struck for three goals in the first period and opened up a 5-0 lead in the second.
Hart made 13 saves on 15 shots in an 8-2 win for Canada. Switzerland's first goal hit off of Canadian defenseman Dante Fabbro before beating Hart. Hart also allowed a goal he probably wanted back on a shorthanded breakaway for Swiss forward Axel Simic.
Still, the 8-2 dominance of Canada has them back in the semifinals. They will face Czech Republic in the semifinal round on Thursday at 8 p.m.
Sweden vs. Slovakia
Sweden was the only team to go through the Round Robin play with four wins. Their fifth win of the tournament took everything they had.
Slovakia has proven to be a tough team in this tournament. They pulled off a massive upset of Team USA in Round Robin play which certainly put the hockey world on notice.
The teams skated to a scoreless first period, but Sweden opened up a 2-0 lead in the second. Martin Bodak's goal with 2:19 to play in the second made it a one-goal game again.
Bodak added a second less than two minutes after Sweden made it a 3-1 game and the Swedes had to fend off Slovakia from there for the narrow 3-2 win.
Linus Hogberg was the seventh defenseman for the team again and played 4:03 in the game.
USA vs. Russia
This one was a battle. USA got the early lead on a power-play goal for Kieffer Bellows, but Russia tied the game midway through the period. Kailer Yamamoto gave the US the lead again at 14:34 and USA carried the 2-1 lead to the intermission.
The 2-1 margin held until early in the third, when Andrei Altybarmakyan tied the game for Russia at 3:39 of the third period.
With just over seven minutes to play in the third, Bellows scored again to give the US the lead. Joey Anderson added an empty-net goal to seal the win for USA.
In the loss for Russia, German Rubtsov had one shot on goal in 18:08 of ice time.
USA will face Sweden in the semifinal round on Thursday at 4 p.m.
Relegation Round: Belarus vs. Denmark
The relegation round also featured a Flyers prospect with Maksim Sushko suiting up for Belarus. For a game without medal implications, this was a wild affair.
Denmark opened up a 2-0 lead after the first period and Belarus pulled even with a shorthanded goal and power-play goal to even the score through 40 minutes.
Belarus continued from there with two goals in the first 8:30 of the third to open up a 4-2 lead. But 34 seconds later, Denmark scored again to cut the lead to one.
The lead held up for Belarus into the final minute as Denmark pulled the goalie. Joachim Blichfeld scored the tying goal for Denmark with 34 seconds to play. Then in stunning fashion, Andreas Grundtvig scored with 15 seconds left to give Denmark the lead and the 5-4 win.
Sushko had a solid game for Belarus, picking up two assists while adding four shots on goal. He was a minus-1 in 26:55 of ice time.
Belarus and Denmark meet in another Relegation Round game on Thursday at noon.
