HELSINKI, Finland, May 9 (UPI) -- Dany Heatley scored three times and Shawn Horcoff added a goal and two assists Friday as Canada reached the finals of the World Hockey Championships for the first time in six years with an 8-4 triumph over the Czech Republic.
Canada, which captured the gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, improved to 7
1 in the tournament.
Shane Doan scored midway through the first period to put Canada ahead before Heatley and defenseman Jay Bouwmeester tallied in the first half of the second for a 3-0 lead.
But Robert Reichel scored twice before the second intermission and Milan Hejduk tallied 2:04 into the third to draw the Czech Republic even.
Kyle Calder put Canada back in front just 76 seconds later and Heatley and Horcoff scored just over four minutes apart to rebuild the three-goal advantage.
Heatley netted his seventh goal of the tournament with 95 seconds left to complete the hat trick.
As was the case in 1997, Canada will play for the gold medal against Sweden, which recorded a 4-1 victory over Slovakia Friday.
Mika Hannula scored with 80 seconds left in the first period to give Sweden the lead before Peter Bondra evened the contest with a power-play goal late in the second.
Sweden, which dropped a 3-1 decision to Canada in the opening round, moved ahead for good less than a minute later on a goal by Mats Sundin, who also tallied less than two minutes into the third.
Sundin assisted on Henrik Zetterberg's empty-netter to secure the win for Sweden, which lost a best-of-three series to Canada in the 1997 finals.
Slovakia and the Czech Republic will face off Saturday in the bronze medal game.
