The gold medal round is set at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship as Russia and Canada will square off in a rematch of the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship gold medal game on Sunday in Ostrava, Czech Republic. That game five years ago went in favor of the Canadians, who won their 16th world championship on home ice in Toronto.
It was the Russians who punched their ticket to the gold medal game earlier on Saturday with a thrilling 5-4 overtime win over Sweden.
It were the Swedes who converted first just 16 seconds into the game as defenseman Rasmus Sandin (Toronto Maple Leafs) fired a shot off a faceoff in the Russian end that eluded goalie Yaroslav Askarov (2020 NHL Draft) on the glove side.
The Russians responded with a power play goal nearly three minutes later to tie the game as forward Ivan Morozov (Vegas Golden Knights) set himself up in the right faceoff circle and quickly got a shot off a feed from forward Vasili Podkolzin (Vancouver Canucks) and through the five-hole of goalie Hugo Alnefelt (Tampa Bay Lightning).
A big moment in the game came at the 4:22 when Swedish forward Nils Höglander threw a check at Russian captain Grigori Denisenko (Florida Panthers). However, Sweden's leading scorer caught Denisenko with an elbow to the head, which earned him a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
Just 1:18 into the five-minute major, the Russians took the lead as Nikita Alexandrov (St. Louis Blues) threw the puck to the net and his shot ended up going off the skate of a Swedish defenseman in front and right to forward Alexander Khovanov (Minnesota Wild). Khovanov was able to put the rebound into the gapping net for his third goal of the tournament.
At the 12:05 mark of the period, Russia upped its lead to 3-1 as forward Yegor Sokolov (2020 NHL Draft) took advantage of a misplayed puck by Alnefelt and caught him out of position to slot in his third goal of the tournament.
However, Sweden responded nearly three minutes later with a power play goal of their own as forward Samuel Fagemo (Los Angeles Kings) fired a wrist shot from the top of the left faceoff circle to up his tournament lead for goals to seven.
The 3-2 score carried over into the second period when Sandin tied the game on the power play with 8:58 left in the middle frame. With Khovanov in the box for an illegal check to the head, Sandin fired a one-time shot through a screen that Askarov had a hard time picking up.
Sweden ended up re-taking the lead in the third period with another power play goal that evaded Askarov in goal. This time, it was defenseman Nils Lundkvist (New York Rangers) who found the net with a wrist shot that went through bodies in front and over the right glove hand of the Russian netminder.
Looking for some life in his team, Russian coach Valeri Bragin made the decision to pull Askarov and put in backup Amir Miftakhov.
The gamble worked as 4:10 later, it was Sokolov again to tie the game at 4-4 as he took a pass from Khovanov and caught Alnefelt off balance with a shot that beat him short side over the right shoulder.
The Russians got the better of the chances in the third period to tie the game, and seemed to have the momentum in their favor heading into overtime.
It took the Russians just 3:24 into the 10-minute, 3-on-3 overtime to end it as Morozov took advantage of a sloppy line change by the Swedes and was able to skate around Sandin in the offensive zone and fire a shot past the short side glove hand of Alnefelt.
For Sweden, they come up short yet again in the semifinal round as they will now attempt to play for their sixth bronze medal in tournament history.
Buffalo Sabres prospect Erik Portillo was, once again, listed as the third goalie for Sweden and has yet to get any ice time in the tournament.
Russia will attempt to win its fifth gold medal and its first World Junior Championship since 2011. The last time the Russians made the gold medal game was in 2016 against Finland, but they ended up losing in overtime to the host Finns in Helsinki.
As for Finland, they will also play in the bronze medal game on Sunday after a 5-0 shutout loss to the Canadians in the final semifinal game on Saturday.
Canada jumped all over the Finns right off the hop as they scored four goals in the opening period of plays to immediately put the game out of reach.
It was Connor McMichael (Washington Capitals) who got the party started for Canada just 1:48 in with a wrist shot that went to the top corner of the net over the left glove hand of goalie Justus Annunen (Colorado Avalanche). Just 1:17 later, Canada upped its lead thanks to a goal from forward Alexis Lafrenière (2020 NHL Draft), who got behind the Finnish defenders and put a nice backhand shot over the shoulder of Annunen.
Finland called a timeout to try and calm down the troops, but it did no good.
It took the Canadians 50 seconds after their second goal to make it three as defenseman Jamie Drysdale (2020 NHL Draft) skated his way into space from the point and fired a wrist shot past the blocker of Annunen.
Canada eventually made the score 4-0 with 5:11 remaining in the first as Ty Dellandrea (Dallas Stars) put home a loose puck created when Annunen failed to cover a puck in front of him in time before forward Aidan Dudas (Kings) poked the puck free.
Lafrenière made it the 5-0 score late in the second period as he used a screen from Sabres prospect Dylan Cozens in front of the net on the power play to beat Annunen with a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle.
Canadian goalie Joel Hofer (Blues) was tested throughout the game with some quality Finnish chances, but he ended up stopping all 32 shots he faced to notch his fourth win for Canada and his first shutout.
Sabres prospect Dylan Cozens was held pointless for Canada in the win, but he picked up another shot on goal and was 50% on his faceoffs in 14:02 of total ice time.
The Canadians have already faced the Russians once during preliminary play, but it ended up being a 6-0 loss for them in Ostrava in their second game of the tournament.
Canada's last World Junior Championship came in 2018 when the tournament was last held in Buffalo. They went on to go undefeated throughout the tournament and beat Sweden in the gold medal game.
The bronze medal game between Sweden and Finland will take place at 9 a.m. EST on Sunday, followed by the gold medal game between Canada and Russia at 1 p.m. EST.
In the relegation round, Kazakhstan was able to live another day with a 4-1 win over Germany to tie the series at 1-1. The deciding Game 3 of the series will take place on Sunday at 5 a.m. EST in Ostrava.