By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
It wasn't meant to be a battle of the Flyers goalie prospects, but that's what the semi-final match between Canada and Sweden turned into.
With Sweden getting two goals in 8:05 to take a 2-1 lead, Canada pulled starter Connor Ingram for 2016 second-round pick Carter Hart. The rest is history.
Hart was stellar, making 28 saves and holding Sweden off the board the rest of the way in a 5-2 win for Canada that advanced them to Thursday's Gold Medal game.
Hart's teammate, defensive prospect Philippe Myers, was not available for the game due to a concussion suffered in Saturday's action. He remains doubtful for Thursday's championship game.
Even in defeat, goalie Felix Sandstrom, the Flyers third-round pick from 2015, was just as excellent. Sandstrom finished the game allowing four goals, but making 38 saves, several of them being highlight-reel quality.
Sweden opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal by Joel Eriksson Ek at 6:05. Moments later at 7:43, Mitchell Stephens managed to jam a rebound past Sandstrom to even the score at one. Just 22 seconds later, Carl Grundstrom gave Sweden the lead back. That's when Hart entered the game for Ingram.
Canada got the equalizer late in the first as Anthony Cirelli scored at 18:49.
It took until the 12:02 mark of the second before Canada claimed the lead as Julien Gauthier wedged a puck just over the goalline on a jam play at the net.
Dylan Strome padded Canada's lead with a goal through a screened Sandstrom at 7:38 of the third. Gauthier scored into an empty net with 1:58 to play to seal Canada's win.
Also playing for Sweden, Flyers prospect defenseman David Bernhardt was a minus-one with two shots on goal in 14:40.
The highlights, which feature several big saves from both Hart and Sandstrom, can be seen below.
Earlier in the day, the other semi-final game between USA and Russia provided thrilling action as well, but was limited on Flyers prospects. 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov missed the game after leaving the quarterfinal match following a high-stick to the face. USA forward and Flyers prospect Tanner Laczynski also was unavailable for the game due to illness.
In a thriller, the USA advanced to the Gold Medal game with a seven-round shootout win for a 4-3 final.
Russia took the lead at 11:54 of the first period on a goal by Kirill Kaprizov. The only assist on the goal went to Flyers prospect forward Mikhail Vorobyov. Vorobyov now has nine assists in six games in the tournament.
Colin White tied the game for the US with 55 seconds remaining in the first.
Denis Guryanov gave Russia the lead back 1:17 into the second. The lead held until Luke Kunin scored on a US power play midway through the period to tie the game. With under four minutes to play in the second, again it was White scoring to put USA in front.
Clayton Keller had a penalty shot chance to increase the US lead to two, but was stopped by Ilya Samsonov. 50 seconds after the penalty shot attempt, Guryanov scored his second goal of the game to tie things up.
The 3-3 score held through 60 minutes of play and the game went to overtime. After 10 minutes of 4-on-4 with neither team willing to budge, the game went to a five-round shootout.
Russia scored first in the shootout with Guryanov getting the goal. Troy Terry scored in the fourth round to tie things up for the US. Vorobyov scored in the fourth round as well, putting Russia one save away from the Gold Medal game. Jeremy Bracco scored to put any celebration on hold, but Russia still had a chance to win with a goal by Kaprizov, who was stopped by Tyler Parsons.
The shootout went to a sixth round and both Terry and Guryanov scored to force a seventh round. This time, Parsons stopped Alexander Polunin and Terry scored his third goal in the shootout on his third attempt to give USA the thrilling victory.
Sweden and Russia will face off in the Bronze Medal game on Thursday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. before the main event at 8 p.m. as Canada and the US meet for the second time in the tournament for the Gold Medal game.
