Canada, Russia set up final clash at worlds

Prague: Canada beat the Czech Republic to clinch a date in Sunday`s ice hockey world championship final with defending champions Russia who saw off the USA 4-0.

Canada recorded their ninth victory in as many games when they saw off the Czechs 2-0 in Saturday`s semi-final, while Russia broke the young US team`s resistance in the final period in their last four clash.

The Czech Republic and the USA will play for bronze.

Olympic winners from 2010 and 2014, Canada have secured the first medal from the world championship since 2009 while their last title dates from 2007.

The Czechs put Canada under pressure in the opening minutes but the star-packed Canadian team scored first and dominated the rest of the game.

Edmonton wing Taylor Hall hit the crossbar on six minutes and opened the score three minutes later when fellow Edmonton forward Jordan Eberle broke away and found Hall in front of a gaping Czech goal.

Dallas wing Jason Spezza made it 2-0 on 30 minutes with a low wrist shot from the faceoff circle that took Winnipeg goalie Ondrej Pavelec in the Czech goal by surprise.

Arizona goalie Mike Smith stopped all 23 shots by the Czechs for his second shutout of the tournament while Pavelec had 39 saves.

"We came here to have a chance to compete for the gold medal and now we have that," Spezza told AFP.

"In the first five or ten minutes they got some shots and some chances but after that we settled down and we found our game," added Hall.

Czech wing Jaromir Jagr, the 43-year-old Florida Panthers veteran, said the Czechs` failure to score early was key.

"We played them as we had wanted but unfortunately we failed to score in the first ten or fifteen minutes, then we got a bit tired."

"In the second period you could see they didn`t really have to work hard during the tournament, they had far more strength left."

Goalies long dominated the second semi-final in which Russia outshot the USA 35-30.

Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovski set up Sergei Mozyakin for Russia`s first goal on 48 minutes as the Magnitogorsk wing skated through the US defence to beat US goalie Connor Hellebuyck with a wrist shot into the top left corner.

Washington sniper Alexander Ovechkin, who arrived in Prague for the semi-final on Thursday after the Capitals had been eliminated from the NHL playoffs, scored two minutes later after stealing the puck from Carolina defenceman Justin Faulk.

Vadim Shipachyov made it 3-0 on 56 minutes and Ovechkin then broke away to set up Pittsburgh star Evgeni Malkin for Russia`s fourth in front of an empty US net as the US team had pulled their goalie.