All set for semi finals at Ivan Hlinka Memorial

08 Aug 2013 | Fredrik Pålsson

Canada will play Russia and USA will play the Czech Republic in the semi finals on Friday.

Canada clinched the semi final spot by beating Switzerland 4-3 after a penalty shootout. Even if Canada dominated the shots, it was a close game and small margins that took Canada to the next round. For Switzerland on the other hand it was a hard to be eliminated despite not losing any game before the shootout. " I think we played well today. We showed we can respond in last five minutes. We´ve had less hours to recover from yesterday but the players didn´t take it as an excuse. We absolutely deserved to get one point out of this game, two maybe", Switzerland assistant coach Luca Careda said according to the official site of the tournament.

The Czechs took the other semi final spot in the group after an impressive 5-2 win against Sweden in the last game. David Pastrnak had two goals and one assist in a game were the Czechs had 3-0 lead after two periods despite 19-29 in shots. Sweden came back with two goals in the third period but saw their hopes killed by a power play goal and empty net goal to seal the Czech win. Sweden now have to settle with playing Slovakia to avoid last place. "Tonight it was the first time the lads managed to follow the instructions they were given for the whole 60 minutes. I only can praise them for how they performed", Czech coach Jakub Petr told hlinkamemorial.com.

In the other group Russia woke up after some bad performances and won 7-3 against Finland. Russia was the better team for the whole match but Finland managed to come back from 3-0 down to 3-3 scoring on three out of five shots in the second period. But two quick goals by Lazarev and Boltanov got Russia back on track for the impressive win. "The guys wanted to play to win. They really focused on winning the game. In the second period, we maybe thought that the game was finished, but we came back in the third period and won", Russia's Pavel Baulin said. For Finland two good games wasnt' enough to earn them a semi final spot and they will play the Swiss for fifth place.

In the final game USA easily defeated Slovakia 5-2. USA completly outplayed Slovakia and the first period and cruised to a 4-0 lead after four goals in the last four minutes of the period. Slovakia has three straight losses and will have the last chance for a win in the seventh place game against Sweden