Russia beats Canada 6-5 at junior hockey championship semifinal

Russian junior hockey team beats Canadians 6-5 at the world junior hockey championship semifinal and will play for gold on Thursday. The semifinal between Canada and Russia was a rematch of the gold-medal game last year and ended with the victory of the Russian junior hockey team 6-5. This time Russian team did not wait until the third period as they did a year ago. Russian captain Evgeni Kuznetsov and Nikita Nesterov scored 2 goals in the first period. Ryan Murray replied for Canada in the second period but that was not enough as Russians Evgeni Kuznetsov and Alexander Khokhlochev scored in the second period 3 goals. Russia advanced its success in the third period and Nikita Kucherov stood out and scored a goal. In the third period Dougie Hamilton, Jaden Schwartz, Brendan Gallagher and Brandon Gormley all scored for Canada just under five minutes before the end of the match. Goalie Andrei Vasilevski stopped 44 of 49 shots, but was replaced by Andrei Makarov after Gormley's goal. Makarov made 7 saves. Russia will meet Sweden for gold on January 6 at 5 a.m. Moscow time.