2022 IIHF World Hockey Championship Semi-Final preview

The Semi-Finals at the 2022 IIHF World Hockey Championship will get underway on Saturday morning with the hosts, Finland, taking on the United States and Canada taking on Czechia.

Let's start by looking at the first game of the day (7:20 a.m. ET), Finland vs the United States.

Finland is looking to advance to their third straight gold medal game and will do so if goaltender Jussi Olkinuora continues his dominant play. Olkinuora has a 6-0-0-0 record with a 0.50 GAA, a .975 save percentage and four shutouts so far in the tournament and has done an incredible job at backstopping his nation to this point.

Defenceman Mikko Lehtonen leads the way with nine points, followed by Sakari Manninen and Mikael Granlund at eight points. After a tough season in Montreal, Joel Armia has looked like a completely different player, putting up five points in eight games thus far. Veteran forward Marko Anttila and Valtteri Filppula have also chipped in with five points each, as Finland's balanced lineup has proved they have the depth to beat any team in the tournament.

As for the United States, they were heavy underdogs going into their Quarter-Final game against the undefeated Swiss. But much like the Finns, they had some goaltending heroics of their own. Jeremy Swayman came over to the tournament after the Boston Bruins were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs and he has provided some stability for the Americans. In five games, Swayman has four wins, a 0.69 GAA, a .969 save percentage and one shutout.

The United States are only averaging 2.75 goals-per-game in the tournament, with Adam Gaudette, Ben Meyers and Kieffer Bellows combining for eleven of the 22 goals scored in the tournament. If the United States is to beat the Finns, they'll need those three to continue getting their chances, and hopefully get some help from players such as Alex Galchenyuk.

My prediction: Finland wins 2-1 in overtime.

The second Semi-Final of the day (11:20 a.m. ET) will see Canada take on Czechia in what should be another close game.

Canada had a comeback for the ages on Thursday against Sweden. Down 3-0 to start the third period, they stormed back to tie the game at 3-3 late in the final frame to force overtime. In overtime, Swedish forward William Nylander was called for tripping and that sent Canada to an early powerplay. On the powerplay, Mat Barzal found Drake Batherson, who fired it past Linus Ullmark to complete the comeback and sent Canada to their seventh straight Semi-Final appearance.

The Canadians have had balanced scoring throughout their lineup, with only three of their 21 skaters not recording a goal. Pierre-Luc Dubois currently leads Canada with twelve points and lead the tournament in goals with seven. Ottawa Senators forward Drake Batherson has also had a very good tournament so far, putting up eleven points in eight games.

In net, the eight starts have been split between Chris Driedger and Logan Thompson, the latter of whom has missed the last three games with an undisclosed injury. It's unclear if Thompson will be ready to go for Saturday, but if not, Claude Julien will turn to Driedger once again, who has been fairly good.

Regardless of who is in net for Canada, they'll be up against one of, if not the most effective line in the tournament featuring David Pastrnak, David Krejci and Roman Cervenka, who leads the tournament in points with fourteen.

Czechia was in full control of their Quarter-Final game against Germany, going up 3-0 at the half-way point of the second period with those three goals coming from Pastrnak, Krejci and Cervenka. Czech netminder Karel Vejmelka is having a strong tournament so far. In six games, he's amassed a record of 4-0-1-1 with a 1.44 GAA, a .934 save percentage and one shutout.

My prediction: Canada wins 3-1.

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