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Brad Marchand has a four-month-old photo that holds bittersweet memories for him.

The picture was snapped last Sept. 9 at Vancouver's GM Place and shows Marchand in the middle of the Canadian team's on-ice celebration after it easily won the eight-game Super Series against Russia.

But unlike his teammates, a smiling Marchand is not in uniform. He's wearing a black suit with the Hockey Canada logo on his breast pocket.

"It's a reminder of the player or person I don't want to be," said Marchand, who scored Canada's game-winning goal in its 4-2 quarter-final victory over Finland at the world under-20 championship yesterday.

Canada will play the United States in the semi-finals tomorrow, and the survivor will play the winner of the Sweden-Russia semi-final in the gold-medal final on Saturday.

Marchand, 19, would like nothing more than to have a second world junior gold medal and celebration photo to wipe out his summertime blues.

"Whenever I look at [the Super Series photo] I remember a great time, a great experience," he said. "But at the same time it's something I don't want to remember and move on from.

"The Super Series didn't exactly end the way I would have liked it to."

Marchand scored three goals and six points in six games, but he also took 24 minutes in penalties. His poor attitude in team functions off the ice and his lack of discipline on the ice didn't sit well with Canadian head coach Brent Sutter.

So Sutter taught Marchand a valuable lesson. He scratched the youngster from Hammonds Plains, N.S. (just outside Halifax) from the lineup for the final two games.

"I realized that I had a problem before," an emotional Marchand said. "I wasn't the person I had to be off the ice mentally to be a great player on the ice. I was able to learn that and fix it in the months before the selection camp [for the Canadian juniors].

"I'm happy that I was able to go through that in the Super Series, otherwise I might be the same player today."

Before the Super Series finale, Sutter had a heart-to-heart talk with Marchand. When he later attended the Boston Bruins camp there was a similar discussion with Bruins brass.

Another talk came when he returned to the Val d'Or Foreurs, where he played before being traded to the Halifax Mooseheads before the Christmas holidays.

There was a point when Marchand was worried whether Canadian junior coach Craig Hartsburg would invite him back for the world junior tournament.

"I was worried I wasn't going to get a chance to show them that I have matured," said Marchand, who scored 20 goals and 40 points in his first 32 games with the Foreurs and spent only 36 minutes in the penalty box.

To make sure Marchand had rehabilitated himself, Hartsburg also sat down with Marchand for a chat.

"Before we even got to Calgary [for the selection camp] we sat down with him and talked about with him what went on [in the Super Series].

"You want to make sure he was on the right page with us. He was probably one of the best players at the camp, not just on the ice as far as his play, but off the ice, everything."

Marchand's father Kevin, also his minor-hockey coach, and sister are here cheering Brad on. The other family members watched his game-winning goal back home on the family's new entertainment centre.

The goal redeemed Marchand's neutral-zone miscue that led to Sweden's game-winning goal against Canada last Saturday.

"When you score a winning goal like that, it's obviously a huge feeling for yourself and your team," Marchand said. "But it wasn't just me, it was a team effort. Sometimes bounces go my way and sometimes they don't."