World Juniors Standings Update

There are just six games remaining in the preliminary round of the World Juniors, and the picture for the second week of the tournament is beginning to become a little more clear.

Here's what the standings look like heading into Tuesday:

Preliminary Round

R	Team	GP	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF:GA	PTS
Group A
1	CAN	3	3	0	0	0	16:1	9
2	USA	3	2	1	0	0	11:1	8
3	SVK	3	1	0	0	2	2:12	3
4	FIN	3	0	0	1	2	3:8	1
5	GER	2	0	0	0	2	0:10	0
Group B
1	SWE	3	3	0	0	0	13:5	9
2	RUS	3	1	1	0	1	12:5	5
3	SUI	2	1	0	0	1	5:9	3
4	CZE	3	0	1	0	2	8:13	2
5	DEN	3	0	0	2	1	6:12	2

And here is what we know about the next round:

-The game between the United States and Canada will determine the winner of Group A. Even if the US won the game in overtime, causing the two teams to finish tied in points, the US would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.

-Sweden has already won Group B regardless of their result against Switzerland on Wednesday.

-The battle for the relegation round in Group A will be between Germany and.....Finland? The loser of the game between the two on Wednesday will determine who will play the best-of-three series to stay in the top group. Finland should be fine, but with the way they've struggled to score, you never know. Slovakia could theoretically end up there too if the Germans win their last two. I wouldn't count on that.

-The Czech Republic and Denmark are battling to stay out of the relegation round in Group B. The Czechs had a late comeback and overtime victory over Denmark on Monday to give themselves a huge edge in getting to the quarterfinals. Denmark now has to earn more points than the Czech Republic in their final game. Switzerland could technically end up at the bottom too, but that's highly unlikely.