For the third straight year, the United States of America walked out of the IIHF World U18 Championships with the gold medal. It took a pair of OT wins to do it, beating Canada in the semifinals thanks to a Tyler Biggs goal, and getting the golden goal from the stick of blueliner Connor Murphy on a powerplay against Sweden. It was the USA's sixth overall title at the U18 level wince the tournament was added to the IIHF's schedule in 1999. Russia is second in overall titles with three, while Canada and Finland have two each.

Russia won the bronze medal thanks to a 6-4 win over Canada. OHL rookie sensation Nail Yakupov scored a hat trick against Canada, as Canada decided to mix things up by starting Andrew D'Agostini ahead of Malcolm Subban in goal. Canada's 4th place finish was well-earned: they lost to each of the medallists once in the tournament.

The championship level of the 2012 U18s will take place in Switzerland, though a host city has yet to be determined. They'll have their work cut out for them to top what Germany managed this year. I'll have more to recap on the U18s soon, but here is the final standings for first the top 10 nations this year, and then for the rest of the world after the jump:

2011 IIHF U18 Final Ranking Rank Country 2012 Tournament 1 USA Championship 2 Sweden Championship 3 Russia Championship 4 Canada Championship 5 Finland Championship 6 Germany Championship 7 Switzerland Championship 8 Czech Republic Championship 9 Norway Division 1A 10 Slovakia Division 1A

11 Latvia Championship 12 Denmark Championship 13 Slovenia Division 1A 14 Italy Division 1A 15 France Division 1A 16 Kazakhstan Division 1B 17 Belarus Division 1B 18 Poland Division 1B 19 Hungary Division 1B 20 Great Britain Division 2A 21 South Korea Division 2A 22 Austria Division 1B 23 Ukraine Division 1B 24 Romania Division 2A 25 The Netherlands Division 2A 26 Croatia Division 2A 27 Lithuania Division 2A 28 Spain Division 2B 29 Estonia Division 2B 30 China Division 2B 31 Serbia Division 2B 32 Belgium Division 3A 33 New Zealand Division 3A 34 Australia Division 2B 35 Iceland Division 2B 36 Mexico Division 3A 37 Bulgaria Division 3A 38 Chinese Taipei Division 3A 39 South Africa Division 3B 40 Israel Division 3B 41 Turkey Division 3B 42 Ireland Division 3B





DNP Japan Division 1A DSQ Mongolia Division 3B

I've assigned each team to their assumed division grouping for next year, as per what is expected to be agreed upon by the various national federations at meetings in Bratislava over the next month (in conjunction with the IIHF World Championships). I'll also have a new Junior Hockey World Ranking done up in the next few days based on the 2011 results of the U20 and U18 programs.

