Winner gets gold: 4 keys to Canada vs. USA

Rematch.

Canada and the United States will face off for global junior hockey supremacy Thursday night in the gold-medal game of the 2017 World Junior Hockey Championship.

The puck drops shortly after 8 p.m. ET at the Bell Centre in Montreal, and you can watch on TSN in Canada and the NHL Network in the U.S.

Here are four keys to the big matchup:

USA the favorite

It may have taken the U.S. two one-goal medal-round wins to get to the final - first over Switzerland and then a dramatic shootout victory against Russia - but with all due respect to the Canadians, the Americans are the favorites.

Not only did the U.S. knock off the Russians for the first time in history in the medal round at the world juniors, it's the only undefeated team left standing after Sweden bowed out - as Sweden does - to Canada.

Canada's only loss came at the hands of the Americans, who won 3-1 on New Year's Eve. While beating Canada twice is a tall order, there's no reason to believe they can't pull this off.

Here's how things stand after six games:

Canada's offensive output was aided by a 10-2 thrashing of Latvia. If you eliminate each country's game against the Latvians, the Americans have scored 18 and allowed 10, while Canada's scored 21 and allowed 11. In other words, the two teams are closer offensively than the goals tally through six games indicates.

In fact, the only game in which Canada failed to score five or more was against the U.S.

Defense and goaltending win championships, even in short tournaments. The Americans have the edge, albeit a slight one.

This is the fourth time Canada and the U.S. will play for gold. The Americans hold a 2-1 advantage, losing in 1997, and winning in 2004 and 2010. Canada's seeking its 17th gold medal, the U.S. its fourth.

Hart's the man for Canada

It took all tournament, and there are only three periods and maybe some change to play, but Canada's finally got its starting goalie: Carter Hart.

Better late than never.

Hart came on in relief of Connor Ingram against Sweden on Wednesday, after Ingram allowed two goals on three shots, and was perfect the rest of the way. And for Canada to win Thursday, he's going to have to provide much of the same. There's little room for error in Canada's crease.

USA's fourth-ranked .9225 save percentage as a team is also a bit misleading, since the Swedes finished first at .9268. The Americans have basically had some of the best goaltending at the tournament, and Hart's challenge will be to best his counterpart, Tyler Parsons.

Parsons - who's started four games to Hart's three - was in the crease for the Americans' historic win over the Russians, and was named player of the game, but he wasn't in the lineup on New Year's Eve. It was Joseph Woll who stopped an impressive 25-of-26 shots against Canada in USA's 3-1 victory on Dec. 31.

U.S. must stay out of the box

There's one thing the Americans have struggled to do at this year's world juniors: kill penalties. And that could be a huge problem against the offensively gifted Canadians.

If the U.S. can't kill penalties - its been successful only 15 times out of 20 - it can't take penalties. Period. Not against Canada's power play, which is lethal at 31 percent.

The more disciplined team, which can keep its emotions in check, will win. It's as simple as that.

Keller vs. Strome

Outside of the 'tenders, the two players to watch Thursday are Canada's Dylan Strome and USA's Clayton Keller - each team's best player up front.

Both have three goals and seven assists in six games. The only difference: Keller has 26 shots and no goals on the power play, while Strome has fired 22 pucks at the net and scored twice on the man advantage.

Interestingly enough, both are Arizona Coyotes draft picks. Strome was selected third overall in 2015, Keller seventh overall in 2016. They're big parts of the future of hockey in the desert, and will undoubtedly be talking about this game and its result for years.

May the better Coyotes prospect - and the better country Thursday night - win.