Some nerd statistics I came up with while comparing previous tournaments this evening before the upcoming game between Russia - USA:

Russia and USA have played each other in the playoffs for the past three World Junior Championships, two quarter finals and one semifinal.

Russia has won all of them, in two out of three games USA have had the lead by one goal.

During both of the times that the teams have faced each other in the quarter finals Russia has finished 3rd in their group, while USA finished at 2nd place during all of the three competitions (Russia finishing 1st the one time they played in the semifinals).

The upcoming match will be the first time they have played each other already at an earlier stage of the tournament, being either in different groups or not being able to due to change in the tournament format.
- USA has always had a better goal difference than Russia during all of the three previous tournament group stages as well as this years.
(USA has during these events always had more goals scored as well as having conceded less than Russia, year by year, except for in 2014 when they had both scored 21 goals)
- USA has faced Canada during the group stage in each of the previous three tournaments as well as this years, having lost the two first while winning the two last (and those years they have won has so far taken USA to the semifinals).