Coming off gold-medal wins in 2015 and 2016, Canada was looking for a three-peat at the IIHF World Championship last year in Cologne, Germany. But the Canadians ran into a red-hot Henrik Lundqvist, who joined the team mid-tournament and made 42 saves while stopping all four attempts in the shootout to give Sweden their first gold since 2013.

Now Canada is just one win away from another shot at gold.

Connor McDavid fed Ryan O’Reilly for an overtime winner against Russia in the quarterfinals, which set Canada up for a likely rematch with Finland in the semifinal – a team that defeated Canada 5-1 earlier in the tournament. Standing in the Finns’ way was Switzerland, who finished fourth in Group A with 12 points compared to Finland’s 16.

After Finland led 1-0 in the second period, Switzerland scored three consecutive goals on their way to a surprising 3-2 quarterfinal win.

Canada has had their share of trouble with the Swiss in recent years. Switzerland has won two of their past three meetings with Canada, including a 3-2 overtime win in group play last year. Switzerland would go on the finish sixth in last year’s tournament, which was their best finish since a silver medal – the nation’s only medal in the last 65 years – in 2013.

But this year they’ve played teams close. Six of Switzerland’s eight games have been decided by two goals or less. They’ve also been solid defensively, allowing two goals or fewer in five of their eight games. Nino Niederreiter and Enzo Corvi lead the way on offence with eight points apiece.

One key to Canada’s success in Denmark has unsurprisingly been Connor McDavid. After one goal and eight assists at the worlds in 2016, McDavid has taken his play to another level this time around. He has five goals and is tied with Patrick Kane for the tournament lead in assists with 11, while McDavid’s 16 points are tied for third-most behind Kane and Finland’s Sebastian Aho.

In their semifinal win over Russia, McDavid had a game-high three points, including that near-impossible feed that set up O’Reilly’s winner.

“We may not have been great through the group stage but we were dangerous tonight,” McDavid said following Thursday’s win. “We did a lot of good things.”

As good as Canada looked, they did let Russia claw back from three separate deficits.

“I thought we did a better job of scoring goals obviously, but when we have the lead like that we have to do a better job of defending. Obviously they made some good plays but still, we can’t be giving up that much. We have to defend a little bit better and make it a little tougher and take away their offence,” said O’Reilly.

The game gets underway Saturday at 1 p.m. ET across the TSN Network and on TSN GO.

 

Sweden vs. USA

Sweden beat Canada in the final last year for their first medal since a bronze in 2013. They haven’t dropped a game all tournament and have scored at least three goals in every matchup.

Rickard Rakell has led the way for Sweden with six goals and seven assists.

Last year, the U.S. snapped a four-game losing streak against Sweden at the worlds but went on to finish fifth in the tournament. Their last medal was a bronze in 2015.

Like the Swedes, their offence has been a driving force. They have three goals or more in seven of eight games while Kane leads the way with eight.

The game gets underway Saturday at 9 a.m. ET across the TSN Network and on TSN GO.

*Stats courtesy of TSN's Kevin Gibson.