HELSINKI — Yegor Korshkov had a goal and an assist and Russia advanced to the gold-medal game of the world junior hockey championship with a 2-1 victory over the United States on Monday.
Russia will face host Finland for the gold on Tuesday. The Finns advanced to the final after hanging on to beat Sweden 2-1 earlier Monday.
Pavel Kraskovski also scored for Russia and Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves.
Christian Dvorak scored for the United States, which will face Sweden on Tuesday in the bronze-medal game. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 31 shots.
The Americans have won bronze four times (1986, 1992, 2007, 2011). It’s a disappointing outcome for a team loaded with NHL-drafted talent.
"It’s a tough pill to swallow," U.S. top scorer Auston Matthews said. "They kept us on the outside, and they blocked a lot of shots."
The Russians ousted the U.S. in the tournament for the third straight year.
"We’ve got to recover here," Dvorak said. "We’ve got to forget about the game tonight and worry about tomorrow. We’ve got a chance to win a bronze medal, so we’ve got to give it all we’ve got."
Dvorak opened the scoring at the 9:03 mark of the first period. He swatted in a cross-crease pass from linemate Sonny Milano.
"We started off pretty well," Dvorak said. "I thought we played a pretty good, solid game today. We just didn’t get the bounces we needed. We ran into some penalty trouble. It stings, for sure."
Kraskovski knocked in a rebound from just outside the crease to tie it 1-all for Russia at 15:08 of the second period.
Korshkov gave Russia the lead for good minutes later, pushing the puck between Nedeljkovic’s foot and the near post.
In the other semifinal, Antti Kalapudas scored a second-period power-play goal to send Finland to its second championship final in three years. The Finns beat host Sweden 3-2 in the 2014 gold medal game.
Roope Hintz also scored and Kasperi Kapanen and team captain Mikko Rantanen each added two assists for Finland. Kaapo Kahkonen made 21 saves for Finland.
Rasmus Asplund scored for Sweden. Linus Soderstrom stopped 26 shots.
