By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Tuesday marked the beginning of the 2018 World Junior Championships in Buffalo and the Flyers had four prospects in attendance for their respective countries.
Carter Hart suits up for Canada, German Rubtsov for Russia, Linus Hogberg for Sweden and Maksim Sushko for Belarus. All four prospects were on the ice on Tuesday for the first games of Round Robin play.
Russia opened with a 5-4 loss to Czech Republic in the first game of the day, but Rubtsov was a standout for his team. Rubtsov played 16:29 in the game, posting two assists and taking one shot in the game.
Sweden and Belarus faced off in the next game with Sweden easily taking the game, 6-1. Hogberg was listed as Sweden's seventh defenseman, playing just 7:46 of ice time. Suchko took an cross-checking penalty, but was heavily used by Belarus, playing 19:39 in the game.
Canada faced Finland in their first action of the tournament and had Flyers prospect Carter Hart in goal. Hart was solid in his first game in Buffalo, making 29 saves on 31 shots for Finland in Canada's 4-2 win.
Team USA closed out the day's action with a 9-0 win over Denmark.
Two Flyers prospects have games scheduled for Wednesday. Sushko and Belarus will face Switzerland at 3 p.m. while Hart and Canada will face Slovakia at 7 p.m. Hart may not start this game, as Canada may choose to use him for their outdoor game against USA on Friday instead of back-to-back starts.
Teams play four Round Robin games and the top eight teams in standings points will advance to the quarterfinals to be played on Monday, Jan. 2. The Semi-finals will be on Thursday, Jan. 4 and the medal games will be on Friday, Jan. 5.
