Canada advances to world championship semifinals with 6-0 win over Sweden

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Canada kept its title defence alive at the world hockey championship with a 6-0 quarter-final win over Sweden on Thursday.

Mark Scheifele and Mark Stone each had a goal and two assists as Canadians rebounded from a 4-0 shutout loss in their round-robin finale against Finland on Tuesday.

The Canadians, who finished second in Group B with a 6-1 record, got back to their winning ways against the Swedes (3-2-2), who had finished in third place in Group A.

Canada will face the United States in Saturday's semifinals.

Matt Dumba, Brad Marchand, Max Domi and Derick Brassard also scored for Canada, while Cam Talbot made 24 saves for his tournament-leading third shutout of the tournament.

Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves for Sweden.

Scheifele opened the scoring, deflecting a rippling point shot by Ryan O'Reilly over Markstrom's shoulder with 1:21 left to play in the first period.

Canada broke the game open in the second with three goals on eight shots against an underprotected Markstrom.

Dumba picked up his first goal of the tournament on the power play at 6:05 while Andre Burakovsky was serving minor and misconduct penalties for an illegal check to the head of Canadian defenceman Cody Ceci.

Marchand's third goal of the tournament at 12:02 put Canada up 3-0, prompting Swedish coach Par Marts to call time out to help his team regroup, but little-used Canadian forwards Domi and Sam Reinhart combined to put Canada up 4-0 just 11 seconds after the subsequent faceoff at centre ice.

Stone and Brassard added goals in the third.

Connor McDavid, who collected seven assists during the preliminary round, had a glorious chance to pick up his first goal of the tournament midway through the second period when he deked Swedish defenceman Adam Larsson and bore down on Markstrom, who challenged aggressively to make the save and send McDavid tumbling head-over-heels into the net.

After his first sub-par performance of the tournament against Finland on Tuesday, Talbot delivered on his promise to be better in the playoff round. His most crucial saves came early in the first period and when the Swedes came out pressing to start the third.

The Canadians also survived a long six-on-three disadvantage just over five minutes into the third. Brendan Gallagher and Morgan Rielly took penalties seven seconds apart, then the Swedes also pulled Markstrom for an extra attacker in a last-ditch attempt to get back into the game.

In earlier action on Thursday, top-ranked Finland dispatched Denmark by a score of 5-1 in St. Petersburg, while Auston Matthews was the shootout hero as the United States upset the Czech Republic 2-1. In the late game in Moscow, Russia got two goals from tournament leading scorer Vadim Shipachyov on their way to a 4-1 victory over Germany.

Both of Saturday's semifinals will be in Moscow, with Russia and Finland facing off in the other game.