Eurolanche

2017 IIHF Worlds: Semifinals

The 2017 IIHF World Championship is approaching its finale, as today’s matchups were to determine, which country will have the chance to play for gold. The Avalanche were represented in all four teams, but defenseman Andrei Mironov was only in the stands for Russia’s matchup against Canada and its trio of Avs players.

Canada – Russia 4:2 (0:0, 0:2, 4:0)

41. Scheifele (MacKinnon, Parayko), 56. MacKinnon (Konecny), 57. O’Reilly (Matheson), 59. Couturier (O’Reilly, Parayko) – 33. Kuznetsov (Panarin, Kucherov), 35. Gusev (Shipachyov, Panarin)

The Russians dominated play for two periods, but were left stunned after the Canadians scored four unanswered goals in the final stanza. Nathan MacKinnon was once again right in the middle of the action, tying the score while also recording an assist on Canada’s first goal. Calvin Pickard made 26 saves, while Matt Duchene didn’t find the scoresheet.

Sweden – Finland 4:1 (1:1, 2:0, 1:0)

2. Edler (Backstrom), 25. Klingberg (Ekman-Larsson, Nylander), 35. Nylander (Backstrom), 54. Nordstrom (Kruger, Hedman) – 5. Kemppainen (Aaltonen) 

The Swedes jumped to an early lead, only for the Finns to answer right back in less than three minutes. Following the end of the first period, Sweden took command of the game and never let it go en route to a 4-1 victory and a berth in the gold medal game. Sweden’s Carl Soderberg and Gabriel Landeskog didn’t record a point, nor did Finland’s Mikko Rantanen. During the post-game ceremony, Landeskog was named among the top three players of Sweden at this year's tournament.

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