GRAND FORKS, N.D. (CP) - Canada is in familiar territory at the world junior hockey championship after advancing to the final for the fourth straight year.
Canada is now looking to go where it hasn't gone since 1997 and that's to the top step of the podium.
And for the third time in four years at the world junior tournament, Canada will face Russia for the gold medal.
Canada beat the Czech Republic 3-1 in Sunday's semifinal with a smothering defence that limited the shots on goaltender Jeff Glass to 11.
Russia hammered the defending champion U.S. 7-2 in a later semifinal to earn the right to face Canada on Tuesday (TSN, 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt).
Canada lost to Russia in the 2002 and 2003 finals before falling to the U.S. last year Helsinki. The offensively talented Russians are led by Alexander Ovechkin, the No. 1 pick in this year's NHL draft by the Washington Capitals.
"They are a highly skilled team and a puck-possession type team and yet we can't get too caught up in what they do," Canadian head coach Brent Sutter said. "We've got to make sure we've got to continue to focus on our strengths and continue to play the type of game we want to play because if we don't do that, we don't give ourselves a chance."
Canada held leads heading into the third period in the last two championship games at this tournament, but lost both times. The Canadian team is looking to finish this time.
"There's still one more big step for us to take and we know we have to do it to be successful," said defenceman Dion Phaneuf.
Jeff Carter of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Nigel Dawes of the Kootenay Ice and Patrice Bergeron of the Providence Bruins scored in front of a pro-Canadian crowd of 10,206 at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Calgary Hitmen forward Ryan Getzlaf had two assists. Phaneuf of the Red Deer Rebels, Danny Syvret and Corey Perry of the London Knights and Sidney Crosby of the Rimouski Oceanic each had assists.
Rostislav Olesz scored a short-handed goal in the third period for the Czechs, who were coming off a 3-0 quarter-final win over Finland the previous day.
Czech goaltender Marek Schwarz, who plays for the Western Hockey League's Vancouver Giants, faced 42 shots. The semifinal felt tight because of Schwarz's efforts, but also because Canada wasn't going to take any offensive risks at the expense of defence.
"That's the way it's got to be," said Getzlaf. "You've got to work from your end out, especially playing high-powered teams who have a lot of offence on them. The States and everybody has all the power. It's how you play in your own end that wins games."
The Czechs had five power-play opportunities in the first 40 minutes yet managed only four shots on Glass.<
"That's a great Czech team over there and to hold them to 11 shots and only a couple of good scoring chances, it's phenomenal for a team," Glass said.
The Canadians won the game from the top of the faceoff circles and below in both ends. They swarmed Schwarz and scored all three goals on his doorstep while rarely letting the Czechs get anywhere near Glass.
Glass's biggest challenge at this tournament has been to stay mentally in the game when he faces so few shots.<
Olesz, a first-round Florida Panthers' draft pick, scored short-handed on a two-on-one with Lukas Bolf early in the third, cutting Canada's lead to 3-1. Glass had a clear view of the shot, yet was beaten from about three metres out.
"I'd definitely like to get that back, especially because it was short-handed," said the Kootenay Ice goaltender.
Canada played six defenceman because Cam Barker was sent home Friday with mononucleosis. Brent Seabrook has been battling a shoulder injury throughout the tournament and he saw limited duty Sunday. The load fell to Phaneuf, Danny Syvret, Shea Weber, Braydon Corburn and Shawn Belle with Phaneuf getting a ton of ice time.
"These guys all play 35 or 40 minutes for their own teams so it's not like they can't handle the load," Sutter said. "They're horses and you run with them."
With just over three minutes remaining in regulation, the Canadian bench was assessed a bench minor. Crosby had broken his stick and when he skated to the bench to get another one, the linesman ruled it was thrown to him.
"Sidney came and grabbed it just as (Shawn) Belle handed him the stick," Sutter said. "It went out about four inches and the linesman was there and made the call."
Canada killed off that penalty and held the Czechs' scoreless on six other power-play opportunities.
The Czechs have a dozen players in their lineup who play in the Canadian Hockey League and four of them are teammates of Canadian players. Zbynek Hrdel is Sidney Crosby's winger with the Rimouski Oceanic.
Canada outscored the opposition 32-5 in the round-robin portion of the tournament and finished first in Pool B with a 4-0 record.
Ovechkin scored twice and added an assist to lead the Russians to a convincing 7-2 win over the U.S.
The victory avenged Russia's 5-4 loss to the U.S. in the round robin portion of the tournament.
Evgeni Malkin added a pair of goals for the Russians, who broke open a 3-2 game with four unanswered goals in the third period.
Enver Lisin, Sergei Shirokov and Mikhail Yunkov also scored for Russia.
Robbie Schremp and Patrick O'Sullivan replied for the Americans, who fell behind 2-0 before the game was five minutes old and never recovered.
Ovechkin moved into a tie with Czech Republic forward Olesz for the tournament goal-scoring lead with seven.
The U.S. will take on the Czechs in Tuesday's bronze-medal game.
In the relegation round, Slovakia beat Belarus 2-1.
Crosby watch - Set up Canada's third goal with a nice feed from behind the net to Bergeron. The Czechs drew a minor penalty early in each of the first two periods for harassing Crosby and that gave Canada a man advantage to start each period.