Music: {allcanada} Canadian juniors set up rematch with U.S.

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Canadian captain Ryan Ellis and his Windsor Spitfires teammate and roommate, United States goalie Jack Campbell, had fun prior to the world junior championship shooting a gag skit for the tournament broadcaster, TSN.

In the fictional sketch, Campbell reminded Ellis in various ways about the U.S. team's overtime win in the gold-medal final in Saskatoon a year ago. But there was no such real-life hijinks between the two buds, who are billeted with the same Windsor family.

"Jack is a great guy and a lot of fun to be around," Ellis said. "But he's not like that. That was something that was completely [scripted] and it was fun to do. He's never even brought it up to be honest with you."

The friendship between Ellis and Campbell will be tested again on Monday evening, when the Canadian juniors meet their cross-border rivals in the semifinals after Canada survived an early scare to defeat Switzerland 4-1 on Sunday.

There has been the odd text exchanged between Ellis and Campbell since the tournament began eight days ago. But, for the most part, the two have preferred to put their friendship on hold since they arrived in Buffalo.

"Not too much," said Ellis, when asked how much contact there has been between the two. "We kind talked about it before we left. We're not teammates anymore. We might shoot the odd text. It's not a whole lot. We know we have a job to do."

The U.S. was the favourite before the world junior tournament began on Dec. 26 because they had eight returnees from last year's championship club, including Campbell.

But while Campbell has played well, the U.S. scored only 15 times in its four preliminary games and needed narrow escapes to get by Finland in overtime in the tournament opener and to edge Switzerland 2-1 in their round-robin finale last Friday.

Switzerland is the only common opponent between the U.S. and Canada. The latter was slightly better in solving Switzerland's excellent 19-year-old goaltender Benjamin Conz, an undrafted player who upset Russia in the quarter-finals last year.

The lack of offence from the U.S. mostly has been due to the team's inexperience down the middle with Charlie Coyle, Brock Nelson and Nick Bjugstad. It hasn't helped that Jeremy Morin and Jason Zucker have missed time with upper-body ailments. The two skated on Sunday and are expected to return to the U.S. lineup on Monday.

Canada has the edge at centre, however, with its talented and bigger pivots Brayden Schenn, Ryan Johansen, Casey Cizikas and Sean Couturier. Schenn has seven goals and 16 points and is only two points shy of matching the Canadian single-tournament record set by Dale McCourt 34 years ago.

The biggest challenge for the Canadian juniors will be their execution early on against the U.S.

Canada has started slowly in each game and has allowed the first goal in three of its five games so far. Part of the reason has been shoddy goaltending by Olivier Roy and Mark Visentin. Another part has been Canada's jitters early in games that have prevented it from dealing with the pressure to perform.

Against Switzerland, Visentin surrendered a soft goal off his right skate on the game's first shot and fought the puck for most of the first period. But he settled down to make 21 saves and played well enough in the eyes of Canadian head coach Dave Cameron to warrant the start against the U.S.

If Visentin and his teammates can pick up where they left off against Switzerland — Canada wound up outshooting the Swiss 50-22 — they should be in good shape against the U.S. But it isn't easy to predict how this Canadian group of teenagers will handle the pressure.

Maybe the sight of the red, white and blue across the ice will have the Canadians focused early and ready to go. After all, this was supposed to be the gold-medal matchup.

"Whether it was in the final or the semifinals, we expected to play them," Ellis said. "We're excited. We know they have an extra day off, but we'll see what happens.

"Who doesn't like to play hockey? We're hockey players."

Heads up

Switzerland head coach Richard Jost left HSBC Arena with a headache, and it had nothing to do with his team's loss and the pro-Canadian crowd of 14,890 chanting, "We want the U.S.A.! We want the U.S.A.!" in the final minutes of the quarter-final game.

Jost was dinged by a puck in the first period while standing behind the bench and suffered a slight concussion. Earlier in the tournament, a puck hit Swiss assistant coach Alex Reinhard near his left eye area and left him with a shiner.

"I think we need to coach with a helmet on," joked Reinhard after the game.

Swede's ankle will keep him out

Sweden forward Gabriel Landeskog announced on Sunday morning that he will miss the remainder of the world junior tournament with a high left ankle sprain.

The Swedes topped Canada to win Group B and earn a bye to Monday's semifinals. They'll play Russia, which beat Finland 4-3 in overtime in the other quarter-final matchup on Sunday night.

Landeskog, who plays for the Kitchener Rangers, suffered his injury in an OHL game prior to the world juniors.

"It is fine when I walk, but when I am on skates, with all the movement and balance and when I push off, I feel pain," said the 18-year-old Landeskog, expected to be among the top five selections at the 2011 NHL entry draft.

"It can be anywhere from two to six weeks," he added. "It all depends. I will just have to be patient about this and not rush into anything.

"It hurts. I have been taping my ankle for a week and it hurts. It really hurts when I push off and I can't get power in my stride. And my type of game doesn't help if I float around on the ice.

"I felt right away something was wrong. I thought it would only be for a couple of days and it would not be serious and not what it turned out to be. But you don't want to mess with something like this."

Landeskog played in Sweden's tournament opener and scored a goal and set up another in his team's 7-1 win over Norway. But his teammates rolled on for three more victories, including a 6-5 shootout win over Canada on Friday, to earn a spot in the semifinals on Monday.

"It is really frustrating," he said. "It is hard to be in this position. I have been looking forward to this tournament for so long and then this happens, it is kind of heartbreaking to be honest.

"It is hard to sit in the stands and take stats on faceoffs and that kind of stuff. It is really frustrating. I am really proud of the guys, the way they have been playing, and I will support them and everything I can do. I will stay. I am part of this team and I want to be part of this team and I will do everything I can do to help them win."