World Cup of Hockey: Russian win sets up semi with Canada

Russia will meet Canada in Saturday's semifinal after blanking Finland 3-0 at the World Cup of Hockey on Thursday.

Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Telegin scored 1:19 apart in the second period and Evgeni Malkin scored in the third period for Russia (2-1-0). Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves for the shutout.

Finland's Tuukka Rask made 19 saves in his second loss.

The World Cup of Hockey is the first senior tournament in which Finland (0-3-0) went winless. The Finns scored just one goal in nine periods of action.

Russia's win ends Team North America's run at the best-on-best tournament. The under-24team needed Finland to prevail in order to move on.

Veteran Russian forward Pavel Datsyuk missed the final preliminary round game due to a minor injury.

Finland nearly opened the scoring three minutes into the second period as Mikael Granlund beat Bobrovsky glove-side, but rang his shot off the post.

Tarasenko got Russia on the board finishing off a give-and-go with captain Alex Ovechkin for his second goal of the tournament at 3:42 of the second period.

Telegin, who has become known for his shot-blocking abilities in this tournament, picked up a Vadim Shipachev feed and powered around Rask for his first of the tournament at 5:01 of the second.

Malkin scored his first of the tournament at 3:39 of the third period to give Russia some insurance.

Team Europe will play Sweden in the other semifinal on Sunday afternoon.