World juniors: Russia, Sweden, Finland, USA advance to semifinals

The four quarter-final games for the world junior hockey championships were played on Saturday.

Canada was eliminated from the tournament after losing 6-5 to Finland.

Here are how the other games played out:

Russians lucky to advance past Denmark

Russia narrowly defeated Denmark Saturday morning to advance to Monday's semifinals in a game that was closer than most anticipated. A fairly easy win was expected for Russia, though the team trailed until late in the third period.

Russian forward Vladislav Kamenev scored with 44 seconds remaining to tie the game 3-3, forcing the game to overtime.

Kamenev scored again in overtime, netting the game-winning goal with five minutes left in the period to advance Russia to the semifinals.

After scoring the first and only goal of the first period, Russia fell behind Denmark and trailed most of the game.

Russia's other two goals were scored by Yegor Korshkov and Artur Lauta in the first and third periods, respectively. Danish goals came from Thomas Olsen and Markus Jensen during the second period to put them up 2-1. Emil Christensen scored Denmark's third goal in the third period.

The Russians outshot the Danes 46-21, and will play the United States in the semifinal.

Slovakia no match for Sweden

Unlike Russia struggling to handle Denmark, favoured Sweden had no trouble with Slovakia in their quarter-final matchup.

Joel Eriksson Ek opened the scoring for Sweden five minutes into the first period, and Oskar Lindblom scored their second goal on the power play just after the 10-minute mark.

Sweden would eventually go on to win the game 6-0, with goals from Christoffer Ehn, Adrian Kempe, Jens Looke and Alex Nylander.

The balanced attack from Sweden, which kept Slovakia on the defensive all game, has been a staple of the team all tournament, as no player is averaging more than two points per game (Alex Nylander leads the team with 1.6 points per game) and 15 different players have scored goals.

Sweden flexed their muscles in this one, outshooting Slovakia 55-17.

Sweden went 4-0 during the preliminary round and finished atop group A. Slovakia went just 1-3 and finished fourth in group B.

Sweden will play Finland in the semifinals on Monday.

Matthews hatty ends Czech's tourny 

Auston Matthews shone in the United States' 7-0 win win over the Czech Republic in their quarter-final match Sunday. Matthews scored a hat-trick with two goals in the second period and one in the third.

"Everybody on the ice helped me. My linemates played unbelievably today," said Matthews.

The Czech team was hurt by penalties, giving up two goals while the United States was on the power play during the second and third periods, though the U.S. team also scored during the second while shorthanded.

Nick Schmaltz struck first for the United States, scoring 5:17 into the first period. Other goals came from Christian Dvorak, Scott Eansor and Alex DeBrincat.

The shots weren't as lopsided as the score, as the U.S. only outsout the Czech team 35-28.

The United States went 3-1 in the preliminary rounds, losing 1-0 to Sweden in their second game of the tournament. They will play Russia in the semifinals on Monday.