MONTREAL – A year earlier, Slovakia put a serious scare into Canada in the preliminary round of the same tournament, leading by two goals late in the second period before Canada stormed back to win.

Canada returned the favor Friday, making Slovakia look like the scared team in a dominant 8-0 victory to open the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship on home soil in emphatic fashion.

Robby Fabbri (St. Louis Blues) had two goals and two assists to lead a Canadian attack that got at least a point from 11 different players, none of whom were named Connor McDavid.

Russia erased an early two-goal deficit and scored on each of its shootout attempts to defeat Denmark 3-2 on Friday in the opening game of the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship at Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

In the second game in Group B, Sweden got two goals from Adrian Kempe and defeated the Czech Republic 5-2. Sweden (1-0-0) leads the group with three points, Russia (1-0-0) has two, Denmark (0-0-1) has one and the Czech Republic (0-1-0) none.

MONTREAL -- Jack Eichel knew the spotlight would be glaring.

As a top-two prospect for the 2015 NHL Draft, one wearing the captain's "C" on his United States jersey at the IIHF 2015 World Junior Championships, the eyes of the world are going to be picking apart everything Eichel does during this high-profile tournament.

On opening day, Eichel not only gave them no reason to look away, he justified all the attention with a masterful performance to help lead the U.S. to a tournament-opening 2-1 shootout win against defending champion Finland on Friday.

The Finland National Junior Team will look to become the first in seven years to win back-to-back gold medals when the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship takes center stage this week in Montreal and Toronto.

Canada was the most recent repeat champion, winning five straight golds between 2005 and 2009. They'll be one of nine other teams looking to deny the Finns a second straight gold medal at the 11-day event, which runs Dec. 26 through Jan. 5, 2015. 

The Group A field, which consists of Finland, Canada, the United States, Slovakia and Germany, will play preliminary-round games at Bell Centre in Montreal.

The schedule-makers provided quite an offering for fans on opening day with the defending champion Finns playing against the United States at 3 p.m. ET (NHLN-US, NHL.com).

The journey is different but the destination remains the same for Sweden.

As the host nation for the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship, Sweden was counted among the favorites. And they lived up to challenge, reaching the gold-medal game for the third straight year.

But much like 2013, when Sweden lost to the United States in the championship game in Russia, Sweden this time lost to Finland 3-2 in overtime.

While the 2014 WJC didn't end the way Sweden wanted, it's something the players and coaching staff have no intention of reliving heading into the 2015 tournament, which will be held in Montreal and Toronto.

There will come a time in the late afternoon on New Year's Eve when the roar of the crowd at Bell Centre in Montreal will equal the decibel meter in Times Square in New York City just as the clock strikes midnight to usher in the new year.

It will happen when 17-year-old Connor McDavid of Canada and 18-year-old American Jack Eichel, the projected top two picks in the 2015 NHL Draft, go head-to-head chasing a puck into a corner during preliminary-round action in the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel will head an impressive group of 2015 NHL Draft prospects playing at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Both players gained valuable experience at the 2014 WJC in Sweden, McDavid for Canada and Eichel for the United States. The expectations will be ramped up this year as the players, expected to be the first two picks of the draft, will be playing in the tournament in the hockey hotbeds of Toronto and Montreal, starting Dec. 26.

The Finnish National Junior Team received quite a few surprise performances on the way to its gold medal-winning effort at the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship in Malmo, Sweden.

Goaltender Juuse Saros stole the show when he made 35 saves in a 3-2 overtime win against Sweden in the gold-medal game. Saros, who was selected in the fourth round (No. 99) by the Nashville Predators in the 2013 NHL Draft, finished 5-1 with a 1.57 goals-against average and .943 save percentage in six games. He was named to the tournament All-Star Team.

It's not uncommon to have a player jump off the score sheet in unexpected fashion at the World Juniors.

Switzerland's Nino Niederreiter, who now plays for the Minnesota Wild, is the poster boy for coming out of the woodwork at the event.

It was Niederreiter's performance for Switzerland at the 2010 WJC that ultimately placed him in the crosshairs of scouts and coaches leading up to the 2010 draft. He had six goals and 10 points in seven games, including the game-tying and overtime goal in the quarterfinals against Russia, and was named to the tournament All-Star team. Although the Swiss placed fourth in the tournament, Niederreiter opened eyes and went on to become the highest-drafted Swiss-born player ever, going No. 5 to the New York Islanders.

Here are 10 players who could surprise at the 2015 WJC (listed alphabetically):

Thatcher Demko made his collegiate debut at Boston College on Oct. 13, 2013, backstopping the Eagles to a 7-2 victory against Rensselaer. Demko was the best goalie on the ice that day, but whether or not he was the best goalie at Conte Forum was up for debate, as Jon Gillies of Providence College was tucked away high in the stands as a spectator.

Gillies had met Demko in August at a United States World Junior evaluation camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. The two developed a relationship and often text each other. Gillies said he knew how eager Demko was to get into his first game and made the near-hour drive from his campus to Chestnut Hill, Mass.

"We hit it off from the beginning; we see a lot of things the same way," Gillies told NHL.com. "It's kind of grown from there, and it's been fun to share some things with him over the last couple of years."

Gillies was the starting goalie at the 2014 World Junior Championship for a United States team that finished fifth. Demko, the third goalie on that team and the only returning American goalie for the 2015 WJC, is expected to be the starter for the U.S. when the tournament starts Dec. 26.

NHL fans certainly are interested in the current fortune of their favorite team, but there's always a question of what the future could look like.

That's what makes the annual IIHF World Junior Championship such a popular, entertaining tournament.

The elite under-20 international event is stocked with top prospects and future pros at all positions.

A number of those players already have been drafted, with a few already having the chance to showcase their potential in the NHL. Here are 10 worth keeping an eye on when the 2015 WJC starts Dec. 26 in Montreal and Toronto.