U.S., Canada advance to world hockey semifinals

Ostrava, Czech Republic (SportsNetwork.com) - The United States and Canada each won quarterfinal games on Thursday at the 2015 World Hockey Championship.

The Americans battled back from a first-period deficit to claim a 3-1 win over Switzerland, while the Canadians continued their roll through the tournament with a 9-0 rout of Belarus behind a hat trick from Tyler Seguin.

Ben Smith and Charlie Coyle scored 57 seconds apart midway through the second period to give the U.S. a 2-1 lead and Jake Gardiner sealed it with his first goal of the tournament midway through the third.

Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves for the Americans, who finished atop Group B in round-robin play with six wins in seven games and will play Russia in the semifinals on Saturday.

Two goals by Evgeni Malkin and one by Vladimir Tarasenko helped Russia to a 5-3 victory over Sweden.

Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin will join the Russian squad for the semifinal game. Ovechkin's Capitals were eliminated by the New York Rangers in the second-round of the NHL playoffs on Wednesday.

Roman Josi had given Switzerland a 1-0 lead with 6:56 remaining in the first period on a brilliant individual effort. He picked up the puck in his own zone and raced into the United States' end before slipping through a pair of American defenders in the slot and lifting a shot over Hellebuyck's blocker.

Smith tied it at 10:17 of the second with a shot from the slot before Coyle deflected a Seth Jones point blast home less than a minute later. Gardiner's point shot beat a screened Reto Berra in the third to account for the final margin.

The Canadians, who scored 49 goals in winning all seven of their preliminary round games in Group A, continued the offensive onslaught Thursday.

In addition to Seguin's three goals, Brent Burns scored twice and picked up two assists in the victory and Ryan O'Reilly chipped in two goals and an assist. Jason Spezza and Tyler Ennis also scored.

Mike Smith stopped 24 shots to earn the shutout for Canada, which will next play the host Czech Republic in Saturday's semifinals.

Jaromir Jagr scored two goals to help the Czech Republic beat Finland 5-3.