Ice hockey-Canada hit Sweden for six, face U.S. in world semis

By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy MOSCOW, May 19 (Reuters) - Canada thrashed Sweden 6-0 to reach the world championship semi-finals and will meet old rivals the United States in the last four after the Americans upset the Czech Republic. Mark Scheifele gave the Canadians a 1-0 lead late in the first period and goals from Matt Dumba, Brad Marchand and Max Domi put the game beyond the Swedes in the second. Mark Stone got a goal to add to his two assists, making it 5-0 midway through the final period and Derick Brassard continued his fine tournament by adding the sixth. The U.S. stunned the Czech Republic 2-1 after a shootout to move through to the last four. The Americans, who lost four games in the group stage, fell behind to Tomas Zohorna's first- period goal. Auston Matthews levelled up in the second period, but neither side could find a winning goal as the game went to a shootout. Both goaltenders proved difficult to beat before Matthews got the winner. "I just wanted to open his (goaltender Dominik Furch's) legs, go five-hole," Matthews told the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) website. "I was able to sneak it in there, so it worked out." Alexander Ovechkin scored his first goal of the tournament as hosts Russia overcame Germany 4-1. Vadim Shipachyov continued his excellent championship with two goals and an assist to take his tally 16 points, four ahead of Russian Artemi Panarin, who was scoreless against the Germans. Russia will play Finland in the last four after the in-form Finns recorded their eighth successive win by brushing aside Denmark 5-1. Mikael Granlund score twice for Finland, and Jarno Koskiranta, Patrik Laine and Jussi Jokinen also found the net. "We knew there were no free tickets to Moscow," Finland's head coach Kari Jalonen said. "We had to pay the price. Denmark had a great tournament here. It was tough to break their defence." (Editing by Ed Osmond)