MALMO, Sweden - The Canadians displayed their most complete effort of the world junior championship in a 4-1 win over Switzerland in the quarter-finals.
Canada outshot the Swiss 23-20 in the victory on Thursday.
Canada now plays Finland in the semi-finals on Saturday.
The Finns overcame a 3-1 deficit thanks to three third-period goals to beat the Czech Republic 5-3.
Canada opened the scoring for the first time in eight tournament and pre-tournament games against Switzerland.
Griffin Reinhart stuffed in a loose puck past Swiss goalie Melvin Nyffeler at 18:08 of the first period.
Canada extended its lead to 2-0 in the second period when Anthony Mantha scored on a penalty shot at 9:04.
Mantha was awarded a penalty shot after being hauled down on a breakaway by Swiss blueliner Samuel Kreis. The winger made no mistake, faking a shot and deking to the backhand for his tournament-leading 11th point.
Canada's advantage was cut in half with one second left in the period when Nico Dunner tipped in a point shot from Mirco Muller out of the air and by Canadian goalie Zach Fucale.
The play required a lengthy review, but was upheld.
Curtis Lazar restored Canada's two-goal lead at 4:11 of the third.
With the teams skating four-on-four, Reinhart was stopped on a breakaway. Lazar, Reinhart's teammate on the WHL's Edmonton Oil Kings, quickly corralled the rebound and scored on a wraparound.
Defenceman Derrick Pouliot rounded out the Canadian scoring by beating Nyffeler off the rush late in the third.
With the win, Canada improved its record in world junior quarter-final games to 8-1.
This is the first tournament since 1996 that the group winners from the preliminary round have not received a direct bye through to the semi-final.
Before 1996, the tournament was simply a round robin between all the teams. Saskatoon StarPhoenix
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