U.S. tops Slovakia at worlds, faces Canada in semifinals

RIGA, LATVIA » Colin Blackwell and Conor Garland scored two goals apiece Thursday, and the United States beat Slovakia 6-1 to advance to the semifinal showdown with Canada in hockey’s world championship.

The Canadians, who lost their first three games in the tournament, stunned Russia 2-1 on an overtime goal by Andrew Mangiapane.

The other semifinal Saturday will pair defending champion Finland and Germany, which stunned Switzerland 3-2 in a shootout. Finland defeated the Czech Republic 1-0.

All four winners played their preliminary round games in Group B and faced each other in the round robin. The U.S. beat Canada 5-1, and Finland edged Germany 2-1.

On Thursday, Brian Boyle and Sasha Chmelevski also scored and Cal Peterson made 27 saves for the Americans, who won their seventh straight game in the tournament.

The U.S., which was the top seed coming out of the preliminary round, got first-period goals from Boyle, Blackwell and Garland, and was on its way.

Peter Cehlarik put Slovakia on the board in the second period, but Blackwell scored his second goal of the game later in the period. Chmelevski and Garland closed the scoring in the third against goaltender Adam Huska, who faced 33 shots.

Troy Strecher made an outstanding pass across the crease to find Mangiapane at 2:12 of overtime.

Canada had tied the game at 5:03 of the third period on the powerplay goal by Adam Henrique. Connor Brown set up Henrique for a quick shot at the top of the crease that beat Sergei Bobrovsky.

Russia, which finished first in Group A, opened the scoring at 14:32 of the second period when Yevgeni Timkin put a pass from defenseman Dmitri Orlov into an open net.

Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves for Canada, which needed help on the final day from Germany and Latvia to made the quarterfinal round.

The comeback win over Switzerland sent Germany to the semifinals for the first time since 2010.

The Germans pulled their goaltender in the closing minutes and got a game-tying goal from Leon Gawanke with 44 seconds left in regulation.