Team Canada will look to cap a dominant run at the U18 World Championship when they take on Russia in the gold medal game on Thursday night.

Watch the game LIVE at 9pm et/6pm pt on TSN3, TSN Direct, and streaming on TSN.ca.

Canada advanced to the final with an 8-1 win over Sweden in the semifinals Wednesday, their second rout of the Swedes after opening the tournament with a 12-1 win.

Top prospect for the 2023 NHL Draft Connor Bedard led the way Wednesday with a hat trick while Shane Wright, a top prospect for the 2022 NHL Draft finished with a game-high four points (one goal, three assists).

Bedard leads Canada in points at the tournament with 12 (six goals, six assists), while Wright is tied for second with 11 points (seven goals, four assists) despite having missed two games. Mason McTavish (five goals, six assists) and Francesco Pinelli (four goals, seven assists) also have 11 points for Canada.

Team Canada goalie Benjamin Gaudreau leads the tournament with a 2.00 goals against average and .922 save percentage.

Canada has been strong all tournament, winning all six of their games and with four of those six wins by seven or more goals. Canada’s 4-2 win over Latvia in their second game of the tournament was their smallest margin of victory.

The Russians advanced to the gold medal game after edging Finland 6-5 in the semifinals. It was a rematch of Finland’s 4-3 shootout win over Russia in the preliminary round. 

That was Russia’s lone loss of the tournament. They topped the United States 7-6 in overtime and beat Germany 5-1 and the Czech Republic 11-1 in the preliminary round before advancing to the semifinals with a 5-2 win over Belarus in the quarterfinals.

The Russians have the two top scorers in the tournament in Matvei Michkov and Nikita Chibrikov with 13 points each. Michkov also leads the tournament with 11 goals.

Russian goalie Sergei Ivanov is second to only Gaudreau in the tournament with a 2.36 GAA and .920 save percentage.

Canada will be looking for their first gold medal at the tournament since 2013 on Thursday, while Russia last won the tournament in 2007.