Zachary Fucale will start for Canada in Sunday's semifinal game against Slovakia at the World Junior Championship.

Fucale was informed by head coach Benoit Groulx on the ice at the beginning of Saturday's practice.

"We like both of our goalies," Groulx said reiterating a usual refrain. "We think they've been very, very good so far. It's just a matter of picking a really good goalie for tomorrow and Zach has the experience from last year so we feel very comfortable having him in net."

Fucale posted a 14-save shutout in Canada's 8-0 win over Denmark on Friday night and posted a 12-save shutout in their 8-0 win over Slovakia on Boxing Day.

In his second World Junior tournament, Fucale has posted a 3-0 record with a 0.33 goals against average and a .982 save percentage with the two shutouts.

Saturday's practice saw no line changes from the end of Friday night's game and Groulx confirmed the plan was to stick with Brayden Point on left wing with Connor McDavid and Curtis Lazar.  

Robby Fabbri (high ankle sprain) was at the rink on Saturday but did not address reporters.

"Hopefully we can do this for him," said forward Nick Paul. "He's in the back of our minds at all times."

It was a sentiment echoed by other Canadian players.

"A tough pill for him to swallow," said defenceman Madison Bowey. "We're definitely playing for him, because we know he'd kill to be out there. He's trying to keep a level head and still be happy. It's obviously tough."

The team's slogan this year is "Tic-Tac-Tao," which is on the sleeve of the players' team-issued t-shirts. Early in the selection camp, Groulx was warning the players against being too fancy with the puck, but instead of referencing Tic-Tac-Toe plays he said "Tic-Tac-Tao" by mistake. It was a very serious meeting so nobody wanted to laugh.

"Obviously he's got a thick accent and everyone was just trying to hold it in," said defenceman Joe Hicketts. "We're all kind of looking at each other biting our shirts and I had my shoulder pads on so I'm biting those and finally he started laughing so we knew it was OK."

Groulx and the players have used the phrase as a way of keeping loose throughout the tournament. "If we starting panicking on the ice we just say, 'Tao boys!' Everyone resets after that," said Hicketts.

Catch Sunday's semifinal game against Slovakia live on TSN1, TSN3, TSN4 and TSN5 at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt.