By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The World Junior Championships will come to a close later this week with the medal round. The quarterfinals took place on Monday in four separate games that saw all nine Flyers prospects and their respective nations in action.
Only six of the prospects actually played. Canada's Philippe Myers is out with a concussion and goalie Carter Hart served as backup to Connor Ingram. Goalie Matej Tomek also was the backup for Slovakia.
The rest all were in action, and many of them helped contribute to their nation's advancement in the tournament. As a result, seven prospects will continue to play in the tournament on Wednesday in the semi-finals.
The day opened with Russia defeating Denmark, 4-0.
Russia's first goal came in unusual fashion when a dump-in by Alexander Polunin found its way into the net. Flyers forward prospect Mikhail Vorobyov got the only assist on the goal.
Vorobyov added a second assist on a beautiful centering pass to Kirill Kaprizov to make it 2-0 Russia at the end of the first. Russia added two goals in the third to put the game away and advance.
Vorobyov's two assists brought his total to eight points in five games in the tournament. Vorobyov also had two shots on goal and was a plus-two in 18:58.
Flyers 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov played just 3:57 of the game, including 24 seconds after the first period. On his first shift of the second period, Rubtsov was caught with a high stick from Jeppe Korsgaard that left a lot of blood. Rubtsov did not return to the game and is questionable to play in the semi-final game on Wednesday.
Sweden advanced to the semi-finals with an 8-3 win over Slovakia.
Sweden jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first and added two more goals to pull ahead 5-0 early in the second. Slovakia answered with two goals separated by 1:06 late in the second and another goal on their first shot of the third to cut Sweden's lead to two. Sweden then added three more goals in the next five minutes to put the game away.
Felix Sandstrom was back in goal after having Saturday's action off, but did not have his best game making 15 saves on 18 shots. Defensive prospect David Bernhardt was a minus-one in 14:02.
Team USA had to survive a flurry at the end by Switzerland, but held on for a 3-2 win to advance.
USA grabbed two goals in short order from Jeremy Bracco on the power play and Luke Kunin at even strength to open up a 2-0 lead.
Nico Hischier scored at the midway point of the second to cut the lead to one and with 20 minutes to play, the US was clinging to a one-goal lead. Hischier tied the game six minutes into the third on the power play, but USA answered back just 18 seconds later on a power play of their own to take the lead.
Behind 19 saves from Tyler Parsons, USA held off a late push from Switzerland to move on.
USA forward and Flyers prospect Tanner Laczynski had two shots on goal in 12:04 of ice time.
In the final game of the night, Canada defeated Czech Republic, 5-3, in a similar game to USA.
Czech Republic got on the board first with a goal by Flyers prospect David Kase at 16:49 of the first to carry a lead over Canada into the second period.
Canada quickly erased the deficit with a goal by Blake Speers at 3:45 of the period and took the lead four minutes later on a goal by Mitchell Stephens. Just 87 seconds later, Tomas Soustal tied the game with a goal for the Czech, but Canada rallied to retake the lead five minutes later on a goal by Thomas Chabot.
Julien Gauthier scored 3:18 into the third to give Canada a two-goal lead, but the Czechs were able to close the gap back to one less than three minutes later on a goal by Simon Stransky. Just 43 seconds later, Gauthier scored his second goal to put the lead back at two.
Kase finished with the goal on his only shot of the game and as a minus-one in 18:07 of ice time as the Czech Republic was eliminated from the tournament.
The two semi-final games will be held at Bell Centre on Wednesday. USA will take on Russia at 3 p.m. while Canada faces Sweden at 7:30 p.m.
