SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. -- For the second straight year, Canada West and United States will face off in the gold-medal game of the World Junior A Hockey Challenge.
Canada West hammered Canada East 9-1 while the United States beat Russia 6-3 in the tournament's semifinal round Friday.
The final of the championship for players aged 19 years old and under goes Sunday. Canada West will hope to avenge a 7-1 loss to the U.S., in the 2008 final at Camrose, Alta.
"We have all the respect in the world for (the U.S.) and they are the gold-medal champions from last year," said Canada West head coach Rylan Ferster. "Watching them throughout the tournament here, it looks like they haven't really missed a beat."
Canada East and Russia will meet in Sunday's bronze-medal game.
Canada West exploded for five unanswered second-period goals, including three in the first 4:21, to open up a 7-1 lead over Canada East after two periods.
"We just stuck to our game plan," said Connor Jones, who had two goals and three assists. "I think it's the best game of the tournament we¦ve had for sure."
Jones and his linemates Kellen Jones and Cody Kunyk combined for 11 points.
Kunyk scored three goals and earned an assist while Kellen Jones had a goal and a helper.
"The defencemen did a real good job of getting the forwards the puck," said Jones. "Our line had a lot of energy today."
Mathew Bodie, Cam Reid and Daniel Car also scored for Canada West. Jeff Vanderlugt replied for Canada East.
Canada West goaltender Sean Bonar turned in a 32-save performance. He was especially sharp as Canada East registered the first six shots of the game early in the first period.
"He made some big saves early and it's a totally different game if they get the first one," said Jones, who plays for Vernon of the British Columbia Hockey League.
"I know playing against him in our league, it's definitely nice having someone of that calibre on your side."
Kunyk's first goal of the game at 19:07 of the first period gave Canada West a 2-1 lead and came just 46 seconds after Canada East tied the game.
"Wes McLeod made a good pinch and he kept it in deep," said Kunyk. "I just went hard to the net, he made a spectacular pass to me and I just banged it home."
Canada West would never look back.
Reid, Kunyk and Connor Jones struck early in the second period to give Canada West a 5-1 lead.
"Obviously I'm very disappointed," said Canada East head coach Todd Gill.
"We thought we were going into the game prepared, both systematic and mentally. But mentally we just weren't. You look at the first four goals, we had pucks on our sticks and we passed it right to them."
In the afternoon semifinal, the United States received at least one point from 11 different players.
Jeff Costello, Colten St. Clair, Shane Berschbach, Connor Brickley, Nick Mattson, Beau Bennett scored for the United States.
Nail Yakupov, Alexey Marchenko and Ignat Zemchenko replied for Russia, which scored all of its goals on the power play.
Overall, the United States held a 38-16 shots-on-goal advantage, including
16-4 and 14-5 advantages in the first and third periods.
Eric Mihalik earned the goaltending win.
"We think, all through our lineup, we have 13 forwards and seven defencemen who can score goals and can play," said United States head coach Mark Carlson. "We feel good about our goaltending and feel we can throw an awful lot of guys on the ice that can do some things."