With only the medal round games left, the U18 Championship saw a tournament where the best teams rose very quickly, while the rest were fighting it out to stay up in the top division and who would drop down to DIV 1.

The U18 World Championships have gone on with a handful of teams that have rose to the top very quickly, this is really good despite a few weeks before the tournament when major flooding problems just torched the Fargo and Moorehead--areas that almost forced the tournament to be moved.

This year's host team, the USA were looking to continue their medal streak at the U18 level as they have won 2 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze over the last 5 years. The USA got off to a good start with an 8-0 win over Norway. After that, they kept their winning ways going with a close hard fought victory over Finland 4-3 and then a 12-0 crushing over Slovakia before ending the group stage in a close 6-5 loss to Russia .

Canada, the defending champion, started with easy wins over Germany and Switzerland before meeting the expected harder resistance from the Czechs (4-3 OT) and Swedes (4-2). 

Finland were looking to rebound from a disappointing 6th place last year. And centered around the top forward-line with Toni Rajala, Mikael Granlund and Teemu Pulkkinen, Finland did indeed rebound. The team had an excellent start when they beat Russia 7-4 on the opening day, later they managed to tie USA, and in the end Finland tied the later finalists in round robin.

One of the big disappoinments was Sweden that have  the U20 Gold Medal Game twice in the past years. They were hoping to spring board that sucess to a strong showing here, but with the execption of a 7-0 win over a weak Czech team, it was a very disappointing tournament with some results which included barely getting by Germany and losing to Canada where a strong 2nd period almost helped them get back in it but still lost to 4-2. For a team that were hoping to which in a lot of people's eyes as the next big Junior Power, they have disappionting this season with a weak performance in the Gold Medal Game in the U20 and then finishing 5th in this tournament after winning the 5th place game against Czech Republic 6-2 earlier tonight.

The relegation round had a mixture of teams that fell quickly in the tournament. For Germany that finished 5th last year, this was a confusing tournament. After having beaten Czech Republic 4-3 win and tied Sweden in regular time,  Germany went into their final group game against Switzerland with a chance to go into the Quarterfinals. But in the crucial game vs Switzerland, the Germans weren't simply ready and they lost 7-3.This result took both teams down to the relegation round.

Norway had a very brutal tournament. In round robin, they lost all their games and were outscored 31-4. In the relegation round, Norway suffered further defeats to Switzerland (3-7) and Germany (2-5) and finished last in the tournament with 0 points.

Slovakia had a mixed tournament where they got crushed 12-0 to the USA but also had a strong effort against Norway and then lost to Germany lost in a shootout 5-4. Slovakia however kept themselves alive with a 5-2 win over Norway and a 4-2 win over Switzerland in the relegation group.In the end, Slovakia and Switzerland maintained their place in the U18 World Championship while Norway and Germany were relegated.

Tomorrows medal games start with the Bronze medal game in Moorehead. Finland has a good chance winning the medal as Canada has a  track-record of not taking bronze medal games seriously. In 2007, Canada was beaten easily 8-3 in bronze medal game by Sweden, and in 2006 Canada didn't get any medals as they lost 1:4 to the Czechs in the bronze medal games. Finland won the silver medals back in 2006 and could thus get another medal tomorrow.

The final between USA and Russia could be spectable. USA is on a 6 year medal streak and will be looking to win the first gold medal since 2006. Last year, Russia looked unbeatable until the gold medal game where they were crushed by Canada 8-0. Russia will surely fight hard to redeem themselves from this humilating defeat.

Final Rankings

1. USA/Russia Winner, 2. USA/Russia Loser, 3. Canada/Finland Winner, 4. Canada/Finland Loser, 5. Sweden, 6. Czech Republic, 7. Switzerland, 8. Slovakia, 9. Germay, 10. Norway

Germany and Norway are relegated to 2010 U18 Division 1

Belarus and Latvia are promoted to 2010 U18 World Championships