Reigning world champions Canada boosted their hopes of retaining their title as they thrashed Sweden 6-0 at the ice hockey world championship quarter-finals in Saint Petersburg on Thursday. Canada joined Finland, the United States and Russia in the semi-finals which will be played in Moscow on Saturday after Finland saw off Denmark 5-1, while the USA beat Czech Republic 2-1 in a penalty shootout and Russia downed Germany 4-1.
Winnipeg Jets centre Mark Scheifele and Ottawa Senators winger Mark Stone both had a goal and two assists, while Cam Talbot produced 24 saves to chalk up his third shutout at the event. Scheifele put Canada 1-0 up with 1:21 remaining before the first interval, while Minnesota Wild blueliner Matt Dumba, Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins and Max Domi also scored in the second to give Canada a commanding 4-0 lead.
Mark Stone and Derick Brassard completed the rout of Sweden in the third. "It was much closer than the score indicates," Canada's manager Bill Peters said. "If you look at the situation in the second and the third, we had a couple of bounces and at times, they had us in trouble. "But our goaltender had a really good bounce-back game (after a defeat at the hands of Finland) and so did our team."
In the match for a place in the final Canada will meet neighbours the USA, who battled back from a goal down to notch a shootout victory in the first Moscow quarter-final. Tomas Zohorna put Czech Republic into the lead with a penalty shot 15:23 into the match, but Auston Matthews cancelled it out 1:27 into the second period. After a goalless third period and overtime the winner was decided in a penalty shootout. The Czechs squandered all three of their attempts, while the 18-year-old Matthews was the hero for the USA as he scored the American team's winner. "I just wanted to open his legs, go five-hole," Matthews said about his shootout goal. "I was able to sneak it in there, so it worked out."