After sneaking into the quarter-finals on Tuesday, Canada punched their ticket to the medal round at the 2021 IIHF World Championship in spectacular fashion.
Detroit Red Wings blueliner Troy Stecher undressed Vegas Golden Knights draft pick Ivan Morozov and Nikita Nesterov of the Calgary Flames before feeding the puck over to Andrew Mangiapane at the 2:12 mark of overtime as Canada advanced to the semifinal with a 2-1 triumph over Russia.
“It was a great all-around group effort,” said Mangiapane, who plays for the Flames.
“Coming into this game, we all believed that we could do it. Our game was trending in the right direction and it was great to battle back the way we did.”
Anaheim Ducks forward Adam Henrique tied the game midway through the third period, while Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves in a winning effort.
Prince Albert product and New York Rangers defensive prospect Braden Schneider took to the ice for a handful of shifts in the opening two frames.
Evgeni Timkin had the lone goal for Russia and Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 22 shots in the loss.
Canada will now prepare for a semifinal meeting with the United States, which will take place at 5:15 a.m. Saturday and will air nationally on TSN.
The Americans advanced to the final four with a convincing 6-1 win over Slovakia on Thursday.
The other semifinal will take place at 9:15 a.m. and will see Finland face Germany.
Finland edged out the Czech Republic in a 1-0 quarter-final contest, while Germany picked up a 3-2 shootout triumph over Switzerland.
Both medal games will take place on Sunday, with the bronze medal matchup getting underway at 6:15 a.m. and the gold medal contest starting at 11:15 a.m.
