Canada holds off Germans to reach semifinal

Mark Scheifele and Jeff Skinner scored to lead Canada to a 2-1 win over Germany in quarter-final action Thursday at the world hockey championship.

Scheifele opened the scoring on Canada’s first power play of the game and Skinner scored in the second period as Canada overcame a fired-up German team and a deafening sold-out crowd at Lanxess Arena in Cologne.

Canada will face Russia in Cologne in Saturday’s semifinals.

The teams traded chances in a high-tempo first period as the Germans, who beat Latvia in a shootout Tuesday to qualify for the medal round for a second straight year, weren’t afraid to play a physical game against Canada.

Scheifele finally put the twotime defending champions on the board with 2:49 to play in the opening frame when he roofed a Ryan O’Reilly pass from behind the net over sprawling German netminder Philipp Grubauer.

In the second, Canada outshot Germany 20-0 before Dennis Seidenberg directed a puck on Calvin Pickard in the dying seconds.

Skinner scored his fourth goal of the tournament to give Canada some insurance, converting a rebound off a shot from Mike Matheson with 1:59 to play in the second.

Yannic Seidenberg got the Germans on the board on a shorthanded breakaway with 6:39 left in regulation time.

Meanwhile, Finland blanked the U.S. 2-0 to knock the young Americans out of the tournament. Mikko Rantanen and Joonas Kemppainen scored for Finland to end the Americans’ six-game winning run.

Finland will take on Sweden in the other semifinal Saturday. The Swedes advanced with a 3-1 win over Switzerland.

Russia beat the Czech Republic 3-0 in Paris thanks to goals from Dmitry Orlov, Nikita Kucherov and Artemi Panarin.