TORONTO — Pavol Skalicky was named Slovakia's player of the game Sunday night after a 5-1 semifinal loss to Canada at the world junior championship.

It was a head-scratching choice given the all-world effort from his netminder.

Denis Godla made several acrobatic saves and consistently flustered the host side with his excellent play. The powerhouse Canadians eventually proved to be too much but the 19-year-old netminder almost single handedly prevented a blowout.

The Air Canada Centre crowd was so impressed with his performance, fans chanted 'goal-ie, goal-ie, goal-ie' during the post-game ceremony and let out a roar when Godla raised his glove to acknowledge the gesture.

"It was overwhelming and I will remember that for the rest of my life," Godla said through an interpreter.

Godla made 39 saves and was the main reason Canada led by just one goal late in the second period. He had little chance on the two goals that Canada scored late in the frame and Slovakia started to wilt in the third due to the relentless pace.

"(Their) goalie was unbelievable," said Canadian forward Anthony Duclair. "We run into a hot goalie tomorrow against Russia as well. You've got to be ready for that and we can't get frustrated."

The Canada-Russia championship game will be played Monday evening. Slovakia and Sweden will face off in the afternoon for the bronze.

Slovakia had a few decent chances and took 15 shots on net but couldn't maintain any sustained pressure in the Canadian end. The visitors seemed content to play a low-scoring game, ride their hot goalie and hope for the best.

It looked like a good plan for the bulk of the first two periods.

"We don't have a strong offence like we would like to have," Slovakia head coach Ernest Bokros said through an interpreter. "That's why we have to play our game on defence with the wonderful and beautiful goalie — Godla."

David Soltes scored the lone goal for Slovakia, which opened the tournament by falling 8-0 to Canada in Montreal. Strides had been made since then but the Slovaks were flummoxed by the depth and speed of their opponents in the semifinal.

"We didn't help each other," said Slovak forward Martin Reway. "One guy carried the puck and the other four guys just looked at him and waited for passes. It's not going to work against a team like Canada or Sweden."

Slovakia's high point came in a 2-1 win over Finland in the preliminary round. That was followed by a 3-0 loss to the United States and a 5-2 victory over Germany.

Sweden, meanwhile, enters the bronze medal game after dropping a 4-1 decision to Russia.

"We have to win that game," Reway said. "We had a great story this tournament and we now have to finish this tournament in a good way. It'll be a tough game but I think we are going to win that game."

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