So much for this being another easy gold for Canada — this was a tight, tight game right to the finish.

Team Canada downed Finland in the quarter-finals, 4-2, this morning in Pardubice, Czech Republic, getting a late goal from assistant captain Brad Marchand to put the game away. Canada rarely held a lead in this game, and it looked as though overtime was a real possibility.

Canada will now face the undefeated Americans on Friday at 2 p.m. in the semi-finals. The winner of today's Russia-Czech Republic quarter-final game will face Sweden at 10 a.m. Friday.

Playing in the semi-finals guarantees a chance to play to win a medal, either gold or bronze.

UPDATE Russia's on the verge of eliminating the Czech Republic, and will play Sweden for the right to advance to the gold-medal game. Russia's only loss in the tournament so far was a 3-2 game against the U.S.