Sky Sports.com

Canada celebrate their victory over Sweden

Canada and Russia both triumphed on Friday night to set up a gold medal showdown between the two old foes at the 2008 World Championship.

Russia advanced to the final for just the third time since 1993 with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Finland.

Evgeni Nabokov made 23 saves to record his second straight shutout and back up goals from Sergei Fedorov, Danis Zaripov, Alexei Morozov and Maxim Sushinskiy.

The result avenged a 2-1 semi-final loss to the Finns at last year's World Championship in Moscow and puts the Russians one win away from a 23rd title.

Hard work

Defending champions Canada were forced to work much harder against Sweden, the two teams meeting for the third consecutive year in the semi-finals.

It all looked to be going smoothly for the hosts when Dany Heatley opened the scoring just after five minutes of the first period, his tournament-leading 12th goal.

However the Swedes silenced the majority of the sell-out crowd in the Colisee when they turned the game on its head.

Anton Stralman levelled matters with 45 seconds remaining in the opening period and then Niclas Wallin put the Olympic champions in front at the start of the second.

Hosts ahead

Order appeared to have been restored when Ryan Getzlaf responded for Canada just a minute later before Jamal Mayers put Canada back ahead at 8:31.

Yet Sweden drew level again when Stralman grabbed his second of the night, making it 3-3 midway through the contest.

It needed a Rick Nash effort to push the Canadians a goal up again and they finally pulled further clear when Mike Green netted with just seven seconds remaining in the second period.

Fredrik Warg notched a third-period goal for the Swedes but they could not find a way to get back on level terms for a third time, meaning they will face Finland for the bronze medal on Saturday.