National Post (National Edition)

An overtime goal moves Canada past Russia, into world hockey semifinals.

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COPENHAGEN • Canada will compete for a medal at the World Hockey Championsh­ip for the fourth straight year.

Ryan O’reilly scored the game winner on a 4-on-3 power play with 4:57 into overtime Thursday as Canada beat Russia 5-4 and punched its ticket to the semifinals in Copenhagen.

Colton Parayko and Ryan Nugent-hopkins also scored power-play goals, while Kyle Turris and Pierre-luc Dubois added third-period markers.

The Canadians will face Switzerlan­d in the semifinals in Copenhagen on Saturday. The Swiss advanced with a 3-2 upset of Finland on Thursday.

The other semifinal will feature the United States and Sweden. The Americans remained in the hunt for their first medal since 2015 after a 3-2 win over the Czech Republic, while the Swedes edged Latvia 3-2.

Canada controlled the play, outshootin­g Russia 124 in the opening frame and taking a 1-0 lead when Parayko fired a massive slapshot to the glove side of Igor Shestyorki­n at 4:45.

The 22-year-old was a surprise starter in place of the more experience­d Vasili Koshechkin, who held down the No. 1 job for the gold medalwinni­ng Olympic Athletes from Russia team at the Pyeongchan­g Games in February.

Darcy Kuemper made his fifth start of the tournament for Canada.

The teams traded chances in overtime before Canada went to the power play after Kirill Kaprizov was whistled for slashing with 3:35 elapsed. Canadian coach Bill Peters called a time out, then sent out captain Connor McDavid with O’reilly, Aaron Ekblad and Parayko, with O’reilly’s goal ending it.

Canada has now won its last three meetings with Russia at the worlds. The win ends a four-year medal streak for the Russians at worlds.

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