World junior championship: Team Canada coffee talk; youth is served for the cardiac kids

Canada was late to the party when it came to accepting the world junior championship is not just a 19-year-old tournament. Now that it has, it can enjoy New Year's Eve following Team Canada's 3-2 win over Team USA in Malmo, Sweden.

The win gives Canada (3-0-1-0) top spot in Group A and a quarter-final matchup against Switzerland (1-1-0-2) on Thursday (10:30 a.m ET/7:30 a.m. PT, TSN/BTN livechat) . Defending champion Team USA will draw Russia and, more pertinently, be on the same side of the championship bracket as unbeaten Sweden.

Over a frantic, frenetic 60 minutes, the best team might not have won and the last laugh was certainly not had, but Team Canada found a way. Eighteen-year-old Zach Fucale came up with a string of 10-bell saves, including a short-handed breakaway save on Connor Carrick that loomed large after the U.S. pulled a tally back later. Meantime, 16-year-old Connor McDavid poked in the ahead-for-good goal 3:54 into the third, while 18-year-olds Nic Petan and Curtis Lazar also tallied. Another 18-year-old, Toronto Maple Leafs pick Frédérik Gauthier, won critical defensive zone faceoffs in the final minute.

The cardiac kids cliché certainly fits. There's endless discussion fodder emanating out of this latest instant classic, for sure. Happy New Year and as always, discuss among yourselves.

— There were varied contributions, to be sure. The return of Griffin Reinhart fortified Canada's top four on the blueline and seemed to bring out the better of Mathew Dumba's virtues. Dumba had a great shift in the second where he knocked off Daniel O'Regan's helmet with a jarring, clean check and then created a chance at the other end of the ice.

— The American power play, 11-for-19 through three games, was held to 0-for-3 with only a handful of shots. It bears noting that top draft prospect Sam Reinhart has been deployed on the PK.

— Even through 20 minutes but being badly outshot, coach Brent Sutter made a big line tweak, creating a Curtis Lazar-Nic Petan-Connor McDavid line.

— Team USA, arguably, would still be a slight fave in a rematch. Not enough to declare Canada an underdog by any stretch, but a slight favourite. Must everything be oversimplified?

The Yanks' passing and skating was superior across the final 25-30 minutes, which is more of a big-picture worry for Canadian hockey. By rights it should have been up a goal after a first period where it led 13-2 on the shot counter at one point. Riley Barber, who was named player of the game, was robbed with a glove save from 15 feet away.

The slow start did not cost Canada, which came back with an 11-6 edge on the shot counter in the second period. That did not include two dented goal posts.

— Fucale (24 saves on 26 shots) has allowed only one even-strength goal over two starts. Barber's tally came one second after a 4-on-4 expired and was classified as a short-hander. The second American goal was soft, as the Montreal Canadiens prospect juggled a 35-foot wrist shot from Stefan Matteau, which led to Adam Pelech knocking the puck over the line as he tried to tie up a U.S. stick.

On the whole, though, Fucale has affirmed why he's the starting goaltender. Canada might have fallen out of contact if Fucale had not kicked out a Hudson Fasching shot on a sequence just prior to Petan scoring the 1-1 goal off a setup from Anthony Mantha, who recorded his 10th point of the tournament.

— The tourney's co-scoring leaders, Mantha and Slovakia's Martin Reway, play in the same Telus West division of the Quebec league for Val-d'Or and Gatineau.

— The border rivals are incapable of playing a dull, one-sided game in the round-robin. Of course, the one exception in the medal round was the 5-1 U.S. semifinal win last Jan. 3.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.