Canada advances to world junior gold-medal game with win over Czech Republic

Canada will play for gold at the world junior hockey championship after downing the Czech Republic 5-2 in a semifinal on Friday.

Kent Johnson had a goal and two assists for the undefeated Canadians (6-0-0) while Logan Stankoven contributed one of each. Connor Bedard, Mason McTavish and Joshua Roy also scored and Olen Zellweger added three of helpers.

Jan Mysak got the Czech Republic on the board midway through the third period and added an assist on David Jiricek's power-play tally later in the frame. Jiri Kulich helped on both goals.

Dylan Garand stopped 31-of-33 shots for Canada, which won silver at the 2021 tournament.

Goalie Tomas Suchanek made 22 saves for the Czech Republic (2-3-1) before being replaced by Pavel Cajan to start the third period. Cajan stopped eight shots in relief.

WATCH l Canada defeats Czech Republic in semifinal:

Canada will face either Finland (4-1-0) or Sweden (4-1-0) in Saturday's gold-medal matchup. The two sides are set to face off in the second semifinal on Friday.

The Czechs were coming off a massive 4-2 upset victory over the reigning champion Americans in Wednesday's quarterfinals. Canada earned its spot in the semis with a 6-3 win over Switzerland the same day.

The Canadians restored their three-goal advantage with 5:34 left on the clock when Roy swept a low shot in through Cajan's pads.

The Czech Republic had whittled the deficit to 4-2 with a power-play tally 12:44 into the third.

Jiricek unleashed a long bomb from inside the blue line, sailing the puck through traffic and beating Garand glove side.

The Czechs got on the board midway through the third when Mysak sent a shot through the Canadian netminder for his fifth goal of the tournament.

Canada's second power-play goal of the day