By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
On Friday night, the gold medal was on the line as Canada and Sweden faced off. A Flyers prospect was guaranteed to go home with the top prize, as Carter Hart and Linus Hogberg played on opposing sides.
It was Hart and Canada taking the gold with a 3-1 win over Sweden in the Gold Medal Game in Buffalo to close out the 2018 World Junior Championships.
The teams skated to a scoreless first period despite a close call for Canada. Dillon Dube appeared to score only to have to goal disallowed
Sweden controlled much of the first period, outshooting Canada, 16-9, but both goaltenders were up to the task on all shots.
Canada took the lead in the second as Dube got on the board with a nice shot cutting in on goal at 1:49 of the period.
The Canadians had a chance to pad the lead with a power play with under seven minutes to play in the second, but Sweden's aggressive penalty kill, which helped knock Team USA to the Bronze Medal Game with a pair of shorthanded goals in Thursday's semi-final, struck again as Tim Soderlund fired a shot off the post and in to tie the game at 13:07.
Canada got a late power play in the second and headed to the third with the man advantage. Shots were 25-18 Sweden through two periods.
Both teams vied for the go-ahead goal throughout the third. Canada had three power-play opportunities and failed to score, including hitting the post on a point-blank chance. Sweden also hit the post off a face-off.
In the final two minutes of the game, both teams were still looking for that elusive go-ahead goal. After all their struggles on the power play, Canada finally got it at even strength. Conor Timmins set up Tyler Steenbergen for the go-ahead goal with 1:40 to play.
Alex Formenton added an empty-net goal with 1:14 to play to seal the win.
Hart stopped 35 of 36 shots in the win, including all 11 he faced in the third period. He was also named Canada's player of the game in the postgame ceremonies.
Hogberg played 4:05 in the loss, the first for Canada.
For the tournament, Hart finished with a 5-0-1 record, a 1.81 GAA and a .930 save percentage with one shutout in six games.
Bronze Medal Game: USA vs. Czech Repubic
Team USA was denied a chance to defend their gold medal win from 2017 with a 4-2 loss to Sweden in Thursday's semi-final. So they took out their frustration on the Czech Republic.
The first 20 minutes of the game were nearly scoreless until Trent Frederic scored shorthanded with four seconds left in the period to give the US the lead after the first, 1-0. From there, the goals just kept coming for the US and Frederic.
Ryan Poehling scored nine seconds into the second period, also shorthanded, to make it 2-0. Joey Anderson followed with a goal to make it 3-0. Then Frederic scored again to make it 4-0. Kieffer Bellows added another goal on a penalty shot and before the period was eight minutes old, the US had opened up a 5-0 lead.
Frederic and Bellows each scored again in the period to make it a 7-0 game after two periods.
The Czechs scored twice in the first three minutes of the third period to make it a 7-2 game before Frederic netted his fourth of the game on the power play.
The Czechs would score one more goal and USA added another as well with Patrick Harper capping the scoring in the 9-3 victory of USA to claim the bronze medal.
