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Roy: Hat-trick hero

Defending champions Canada cemented their place in the World Championship semi-finals after a resounding 8-2 win over Norway.

Russia put in an equally comprehensive performance to breeze past Switzerland 6-0, while overtime wins for Sweden and Finland ensured their passage into the last four.

Sweden's victory has set up a mouth-watering clash with Canada, while Russia face Finland in Friday's other semi-final.

Derek Roy's hat-trick extended the Canadians winning streak to 16 in the competition as Norway were simply overpowered by the host nation.

Rick Nash struck twice, as Jonathan Toews, Dany Heatley and Ryan Getzlaf were also on target to ensure Canada comfortably reached their sixth consecutive World Championship semi-final.

Ruthless

Morten Ask and Mathis Olimb scored for Norway, who were making their first appearance in the quarter-finals since 2000 when the current play-off format was introduced.

Without the influential Eric Staal in the line-up, Canada's second line was not clicking, so the third line of Roy, Toews and Shane Doan stepped up in ruthless fashion against the Norwegians in front of a crowd of 9,192 at the Metro Centre arena.

Mattias Weinhandl scored the game winner in overtime as Sweden beat the Czech Republic 3-2 and Canada coach Ken Hitchcock admits he is wary of the threat posed by the Scandinavians ahead of the last four showdown.

"They are a very disciplined, quick team with great mobility up front and they have one of the best goaltenders in the world," he said.

Finland joy

Finland defenceman Sami Lepisto scored the winner 3:59 into overtime, wristing a long shot from the blueline through the legs of American goaltender Robert Esche to seal a dramatic 3-2 success.

After storming into a 2-0 lead Finland were given a scare as Phil Kessel and Drew Stafford scored just 37 seconds apart to bring the scores level in the third period.

However, the top scorers in the competition failed to find a third goal and it was Lepisto who had the final say late on as his strike ensured a semi-final meeting with Russia.

Maxim Afinogenov scored twice and Evgeni Nabokov made 22 saves as Russia rolled over Switzerland.

Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and Danis Zaripov also scored for the Russians, who have one of the longest gold medal droughts of the traditional hockey giants going back to 1993.

Russia have now reached four semi-finals since the current play-off format was implemented in 2000.