The U.S. is one victory from earning a medal at the World Hockey Championship, reaching the semifinals by rallying past Switzerland 3-1 in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on Thursday.
Ben Smith, Charlie Coyle and Jake Gardiner potted goals after Swiss Roman Josi opened the scoring in the first period. U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck shut down Switzerland in the final two periods and saved 21 overall.
The U.S. advanced to play defending World champion Russia in the semifinals Saturday at 1:15 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Live Extra. Russia beat Olympis silver medalist Sweden 5-3 in their quarterfinal, setting up a rematch of the T.J. Oshie shootout game from the Sochi Olympics.
The U.S. also defeated Russia earlier in this tournament in group play.
The U.S., with one Olympian on its roster (defenseman Justin Faulk) has won three Worlds medals since 1962, all bronze. Its last World title came in 1960.
Two-time reigning Olympic champion Canada, captained by Sidney Crosby, has been the dominant team so far at Worlds and could face the U.S. in a gold- or bronze-medal game. Canada faces host Czech Republic in the earlier semifinal Saturday, at 9:30 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Live Extra.
Canada and the Czech Republic played a memorable Olympic semifinal at Nagano 1998. Dominik Hasek stopped all five Canadian shootout attempts after the teams were deadlocked 1-1, denying Wayne Gretzky a shot at gold in his only Olympics.
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Russia's Panarin on next game: "We're in a fighting mood to play the Americans. We need to teach those college kids a lesson." #IIHFWorlds
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 14, 2015
