EDMONTON -- The U.S. National Junior Team put the pedal to the metal in the second period in an effort to pare the three-goal deficit they faced after the opening 20 minutes in Group B preliminary-round play of the 2012 IIHF World Junior Championship at Rexall Place.
 
Unfortunately for the Americans, Canada goalie Scott Wedgewood wouldn't allow it. Wedgewood stopped 12 shots in the middle period and extended his personal shutout streak in the tournament to five periods. Wedgewood has made 20 saves through 40 minutes.
 
Wedgewood was even taken out by U.S. forward Emerson Etem at the top of the right circle when he attempted to clear the puck. Etem, perhaps not wanting to collide with Wedgewood head-on, slid to the ice but tripped up Wedgewood with 4:19 remaining in the second. The Americans actually denied the Canadians on a 5-on-3 power-play for a little over a minute.
 
While there were no goals scored in the second, there was plenty of excitement and big hits. Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak (6-foot-6.5) of Team Canada leveled Austin Watson (6-foot-3) in the Canadian end midway through the period.
 
Mark Stone, Jaden Schwartz and Brett Connolly each scored goals in the first when Canada opened a 3-0 lead.
 
It certainly wasn't the start the U.S. needed coming off two straight losses to Finland on Wednesday and the Czech Republic on Friday by a combined 9-3 aggregate.
 
Stone began the barrage with his team-leading seventh goal of the tournament off a quick release from the slot after gathering a pass from Jonathan Huberdeau. Schwartz, Canada's captain, extended the lead to 2-0 when he took a feed from Stone in the slot and buried an attempt from in close on starter Jack Campbell.
 
Connolly then scored at the 15:59 mark of the first on an unassisted goal. After skating into the right circle, Connolly ripped a shot that beat Campbell to the long side for a 3-0 cushion.
 
The U.S. was totally outplayed in the opening 20 minutes by a quicker and stronger Canadian group. Campbell turned aside 16 shots. Wedgewood is making his first start since posting a 26-save, 5-0 shutout, against the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

EDMONTON -- Mark Stone, Jaden Schwartz and Brett Connolly each scored goals and Scott Wedgewood needed to make just eight saves as the Canadian National Junior Team holds a 3-0 lead on Team USA after one period in preliminary-round action at Rexall Place.
 
It certainly wasn't the start the U.S. needed coming off two straight losses to Finland on Wednesday and the Czech Republic on Friday by a combined 9-3 aggregate.

Stone began the barrage with his team-leading seventh goal of the tournament off a quick release from the slot after gathering a pass from Jonathan Huberdeau.
 
Canada captain Jaden Schwartz extended the lead to 2-0 when he took a feed from Stone in the slot and buried an attempt from in close on starter Jack Campbell.
 
Connolly then scored at the 15:59 mark of the first on an unassisted goal. After skating into the right circle, Connolly ripped a shot that beat Campbell to the long side for a 3-0 cushion.
 
The U.S. was totally outplayed in the opening 20 minutes by a quicker and stronger Canadian group. Campbell turned aside 16 shots. Wedgewood is making his first start since posting a 26-save, 5-0 shutout, against the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

EDMONTON - Here are the lineups for the New Year's Eve clash between Canada and the U.S.

Canada lineups
G-Scott Wedgewood
Howdon-Connolly-F.Hamilton (Harrington-Murray)
Huberdeau-Stone-Strome (Gormley-D.Hamilton)
Bournival-Pearson-Jenner (Oleksiak-Pysyk)
Schwartz-Gallagher-Scheifele (Beaulieu)

U.S. lineups
G-Jack Campbell
Czarnik-Arnold-Zucker (Tinordi-Merrill)
Rau-Archibald-Bjugsted (Clendening-Johns)
Coyle-Etem-Miller (Trouba-Gravel)
Saad-Brickely-Watson-Tynan

EDMONTON - The Czech Republic and Finland are prepared to do battle in what is a pretty big hockey game today at Rexall Place.

The winner will earn the second seed in the Group B pool. Finland currently has two wins and one loss for 6 points and Czech has two victories and one loss with 6 points. The Czech Republic scratches for the game include Vancouver Giants defenseman David Musil.

Finland lineups
G-Samie Aittolkallio
Mikael Granlund-Markus Granlund-Pulkkinen (Hakanpaa-Makinen)
Donskoi-Salomaki-Armia (Pokka-Hovinen)
Barkov-Aaltonen-Ruuttu (Ristolainen-Riikola)

Czech lineups
G-Petr Mrazek
Sekac-Jaskin-Holik (Riha-Krejci)
Uher-Filippi-Nosek (Mozik-Jank)
Straka-Hertl-Pribyl (Hrbas-Zamorsky)

As the youngest player on the Canadian National Junior Team roster, Everett Silvertips captain Ryan Murray has certainly had a lot on his mind the last month.

Despite that fact, the 2012 draft eligible defenseman just so happens to be playing like a seasoned veteran alongside Scott Harrington for the unbeaten Canadians. Murray told NHL.com that he believes his role along the blueline for Canada coach Don Hay has changed a bit.

"I think so," Murray said. "They want me to be a shutdown guy here, which I kind of what I do in Everett too. They want me to keep things extremely simple. If I can chip in offensively, that's great, but that's not my job. My job is to shut down other teams' top line."

Murray has two assists and is tied for the team lead with a sizzling plus-8 rating in three games for the Team Canada.

EDMONTON -- There are times when your emotions get the best of you.

That might have been the case with U.S. National Junior Team captain Jason Zucker following his team's disheartening 5-2 loss to the Czech Republic on Friday at Rexall Place.

Zucker was one of the first players available to the media after the loss. The U.S. would later learn that they would be eliminated from medal contention for the first time since 1999.

When asked about his team's chances against Team Canada in the New Year's Eve clash on Saturday, Zucker responded:

"We're going to beat them," he said. "That's what we're going to do. We're going to try our best and we're going to go out there and we're not going to change anything we do. We're going to play."

Zucker was again asked about his comment Saturday morning:

"There is no guarantee, you can't guarantee a win in this tournament, but we're going to come out and play like we're going to win and that's what I was saying," Zucker said. "We're going to give it everything we have and, in our mind, we're going to win this game.

"It's a huge rivalry and you have to come out and give a good fight."

Follow Mike Morreale on Twitter at: @mike_morreale

U.S. National Junior Team coach Dean Blais didn't reveal his starter in goal for his team's final Group B preliminary-round matchup against Team Canada during his morning conference with the media here at Rexall Place.

Jack Campbell, who was manning the cage during Friday night's 5-2 loss to the Czech Republic, is 1-1 with a 3.52 goals-against average and .867 save percentage. John Gibson suffered a 4-1 loss to Team Finland in his only start of the tournament on Wednesday, yielding four goals on 27 shots.

Canada coach Don Hay announced at his morning conference that Scott Wedgewood would be starting between the pipes. Wedgewood earned a 26-save shutout over the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

CALGARY -- If Switzerland wants to make it a third consecutive year with a quarterfinal at the World Juniors, they'll be forced to do so without standout Sven Bartschi.

Bartschi, who is suffering from what is being described as a light concussion, will not be back in time for Switzerland's game with Slovakia Saturday. The winner will finish third in Group A and advance to the quarterfinal of the World Junior Championship.

"He won't play tomorrow," coach Manuele Celio said after Switzerland's 5-3 win over Latvia. "If he's going to play he's going to play in the next round."

Manuele admitted Bartschi hasn't been back on the ice since suffering the injury in the first period of Switzerland's 4-3 shootout loss to Sweden Wednesday.

"He was on the bike a little bit," Manuele said. "It's normal procedure. The doctor is going to look at him. Even the Flames' doctor is going to look at him. I'll have some information tonight again after an assessment and we're going to see what's going on in the new year."

CALGARY -- Switzerland was expecting a rebound game from Latvia on Friday night after suffering a humiliating 14-0 defeat to the Russians the night before.

But few imaged the late game push Latvia would bestow on Switzerland.

Trailing 3-1 heading into the third period, Latvia tied the game before Gaetan Haas and Christian Marti scored 59 seconds apart to lift Switzerland to a 5-3 victory at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Making matters worse was the absence of standout forward Sven Bartschi due to concussion-like symptoms. In the end, it was no worry for Switzerland after Christoph Bertschy stepped into Bartschi's place, adding 2 goals in the victory.

"I think it was a lucky game for me tonight," Bertschy said. "The most important stat is that we won, and now I look forward to the game tomorrow."

Saturday brings Slovakia in a battle to determine which team advances to the quarterfinal.

"We already talked after the game in the dressing room what's going to be," Swiss coach Manuele Celio said. "We've got to keep up and try to be really ready for 4 o'clock tomorrow."

Victory almost didn't happen after the serious push late from Latvia.

Nikita Jevpalovs scored 2:23 into the third period to bring Latvia to within one. With just over seven minutes remaining, Vitalijs Hvorostinins put a rebound behind Switzerland starter Tim Wolf to tie the game.

Haas scored 24 seconds later to restore the lead with his second of the night. Marti added an insurance marker through a screen just under a minute later to extend the lead to 5-3.

With the Latvian goalie pulled, Switzerland shut down a 6-on-4 opportunity to preserve the victory.

"We brought them back in the game," Manuele said. "We didn't need to do that. We should have won easily. After 3-3, the guys stayed calm and put the puck on the net. I hope it's good learning for tomorrow."

Latvian coach Eriks Miluns was happy with the way his team responded after the Russian drubbing.

"It was our best game in the tournament," Miluns said through an interpreter. "After last night's loss our boys showed character. Luck was a little bit not on our side but I'm proud the way we battled and came back in the third. Hopefully we get the bounces soon."

Haas' first goal came midway through the second period after deflecting a Mike Vermeille point shot past Latvian starter Kristers Gudlevskis to put Switzerland up 2-0 midway through the second period.

But soon after, Haas coughed the puck up in front of Wolf. Toms Andersons picked up the puck, deked the Swiss netminder backhand and lifted the puck into the net to bring Latvia to within one at 8:26.

Bertschy restored the two-goal lead on the power play with just 1:32 remaining in the period. Floating in the high slot, Bertschy took a pass from Samuel Walser and fired a shot over the blocker of Gudlevskis -- his second of the night -- to make it 3-1 after 40 minutes.

Switzerland didn't have it in neutral coming out of the gates against Latvia, but had just a one-goal lead to show for their efforts after the opening 20 minutes at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.

Switzerland fired 15 shots at Gudlevskis, cracking the Latvian goaltender 7:41 into the game.

On the power play, Dario Trutmann fired a shot that caught Gudlevskis' right pad. On the doorstep, Bertschy slid the rebound across the goal line to make it 1-0.

The goal came moments after Latvia almost opened the scoring on a shorthanded chance. Barreling down his off-wing, Hvorostinins sent a backhand on net that was met by the pad of Wolf. It was one of only three shots Wolf faced in the period.

While Switzerland will look to Slovakia, Latvia has the unenviable task of avoiding relegation for the second time in three years. They'll battle the loser of Switzerland and Slovakia, as well as Denmark and the United States.

"They're both going to be tough games," Miluns said. "All the teams will be battling to stay in the top division. Any team that's going to come from that side, it's going to be a hard game. The main opponent is going to be Denmark for us to stay in the top division."

Zemgus Girgensons agreed that if Latvia is to stave off relegation, it has to come at the expense of Denmark.

"We have to beat them to stay in the top division," he said. "It's our goal."

EDMONTON -- The last thing Danish National Junior Team coach Todd Bjorkstrand needed to see on television following a 10-2 loss to Team Canada on Thursday were five of his players hamming it up for cameras, photographers and journalists during an impromptu gathering at the coaches' press conference table within the media area of Rexall Place.
 
But that's exactly what Bjorkstrand witnessed on TSN after his team suffered their third straight loss. Those players would pay the consequences, too, as Bjorkstrand decided to suspend all five for Friday's final Group B preliminary-round match against Finland -- a 10-1 loss.
 
"Obviously it's not the way we want our players acting after we lose a hockey game 10-2 against Team Canada," Bjorkstrand said. "It's the wrong way, and that's it. It was my decision [and I got no feedback from the Danish Ice Hockey Association]."
 
The loss officially knocked the U.S. from medal contention. The Americans dropped a 5-2 decision to Czech Republic earlier in the day. Bjorkstrand was asked if suspending the five players helped compromise a game that would ultimately doom the United States.
 
"We're going out every game to win and we had three lines and that was it," Bjorkstrand said. "Playing back-to-back games was difficult, especially since we were playing Finland, but I thought the guys did well. You have to go through those things, but it was the wrong message.
 
"I'm responsible for Team Denmark and not for Team USA."
 
Bjorkstrand remains undecided whether the suspended players will be allowed to return to the lineup for the relegation round beginning on Jan. 2 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.
 
"I don't want my players goofing around after a game we lose 10-2, even if it's Canada … it's absolutely the wrong message," Bjorkstrand said. "It's unfortunate. They're kids and they were fooling around, but the hockey in Denmark has come a long way. We have players in the NHL and the senior national team has been in the A Group for many years now. We're here to do well, compete and stay in the A Group."
 
Denmark, which has allowed 38 goals in the preliminary round, was playing without the services of forwards Mathias Bau-Hansen, Jonas Sass-Jensen, Nicki Kisum, Anders Thode and Anders Schultz. Bau-Hansen had 2 goals and 3 points in three previous games.
 
The problem began when the five players departed their locker room and congregated at the coaches' press conference table in the media area. They then began holding a pretend press conference, with each player taking a turn behind the microphone, which was turned off at the time. All the while, each of them began posing for pictures and shaking hands among themselves.
 
It didn't take long before several news outlets and journalists began taking pictures and video of the session.
 
"You always feel afterwards that you could have done something different," the coach said. "They feel bad about it, and we just have to get through it. The guys we had on the ice [Friday] played hard. We want to play good hockey and represent the hockey community in the right way."
 
Follow Mike Morreale on Twitter at: @mike_morreale