Canada will go for gold in Sunday's final game at the IIHF World Championships. Russia will be its opponent.
Mike Smith stopped 23 shots en route to Canada's 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic. Taylor Hall scored the eventual game winner, and Jason Spezza added the second goal.
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The championship game will be played at 2:45 p.m. ET on Sunday. Canada hasn't won the tournament since 2007 but enters the final undefeated and having shattered scoring records.
Canada lost in the gold-medal game to Russia in 2008 and 2009.
Hall, of the Edmonton Oilers, scored in the first period. Spezza, who plays for the Dallas Stars, doubled the lead midway through the game. Both players beat Czech goalie Andrej Pavelec of the Winnipeg Jets.
"We haven't been challenged in a while and I was interested to see how we would respond," Hall said.
"It's been a while since Canada has been in the finals and we are aware of that. There are a lot of guys on this team looking for their first world championship."
Sidney Crosby and Jordan Eberle assisted on Hall's goal at 8:40 into the first period. Matt Duchene and Dan Hamhuis set up Spezza's goal.
The Czech roster included Jaromir Jagr.
"JJ is definitely a key part of their team," Canada's Ryan O'Reilly said of Jagr, via the IIHF website. "We kept him on the outside. That was a key part of our tactic. But he's a talented player and a couple of times he had us back on our heels a bit. All five of our guys in our own end were working hard to make sure they couldn't get him the puck so much."
The final pairing is no surprise; Russia and Canada are the world's most successful hockey nations. The Canadians are reigning Olympic champion and have 24 world titles. Combined with its years as the Soviet Union, Russia has 27 titles.
In Saturday's second semifinals game, Russia got four goals in the final period to beat Team USA 4-0. Alex Ovechkin had the game's second goal, and Evgeni Malkin scored into an empty net.