Dylan Strome, Julien Gauthier, Mitchell Stephens and on and on.

During their two weeks in the world junior championship spotlight, Canada’s teenage hockey stars will become household names.

But when the tournament, which starts Monday, ends on Jan. 5, the spotlight will be gone. The players will go back to their junior teams and anonymity, at least relative to what they will experience in Toronto and Montreal.

Gauthier went through the experience last year. “It was pretty weird,” he said. “You’re treated like a pro. You play in pro rinks. When you go back to junior, it’s like nothing compared to here.

“You do a lot with Team Canada. It’s a big experience. Then you go back to your routine.”

The challenge will be to make the next two weeks seem like the routine.

“You’ve got to block it out as best as possible,” said Strome, the Canadian captain and another veteran of last year’s tournament. “There’s always people watching you, wherever you go.

“Every day, you’re playing for your teammates. It doesn’t matter if the spotlight is on. When you go out there, you want to win for your teammates, score a goal, or block shots, or whatever you do best for the team.”

“You try to keep the same mentality no matter the game,” Stephens said. “It’s tough sometimes to go into a junior building and there’s no fans. But you find a way to pump yourself up for games.”

Stephens, a forward with the Saginaw Spirit, won’t need to look for motivation. “I love this,” he said. “Big crowds. Big games. I thrive on that.”

Canada wrapped up its pre-tournament games Friday night with a 4-3 overtime victory over Switzerland — with Nicolas Roy burying the winner — and will practise through the holidays in preparation for Monday’s opener against Russia. It is the first of Canada’s four games at the Air Canada Centre. Their playoff games will be in Montreal.

And then . . .

“It will be a bit like returning from the NHL camp,” Canadian head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “It’s not only physical. It’s mentally that it really challenges the guys. You go through highs and lows. Then you go back to your daily routine. It’s challenging to go back to that.”

Some of these players will drop off to obscurity. This will be the highlight of their hockey lives.

“Some guys have great junior careers and never move on,” Strome said. “That’s life. That’s part of the game. Some guys make it, some guys don’t. Not everyone makes it, or there would be 800,000 guys in the NHL.”

There are only a couple hundred in this tournament, spread across 10 teams. And the experience, Stephens said, should make them better players.

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“Just being able to play under pressure. Everyone is watching every night. The next level is the NHL. Here, there are big games, big opportunities. They can make or break players or teams.”

NOTES: The Division 1-A tournament has already been played, and Belarus earned promotion to next year’s world junior tournament in Buffalo . . . The Americans will make their final cut — they are one player over the limit — on Christmas Eve . . . Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of its first league hockey game Dec. 22.