Troy Terry scored the winner in the seventh round of a shootout as the United States defeated Russia 4-3 Wednesday in a world junior hockey championship semifinal.
The U.S. will face either Canada or Sweden in the final on Thursday, depending on the outcome of that semifinal match later Wednesday.
Terry took three shootout attempts for the U.S. and scored five-hole on all three. He scored the winner right after Alexander Polunin hit the crossbar for Russia.
Colin White, with two, and Luke Kunin scored for the Americans in regulation. Tyler Parsons stopped 33 shots.
Denis Guryanov scored twice and Kirill Kaprizov added another for the Russians. Goalie Ilya Samsonov made 40 saves in defeat.
Joey Anderson came close to scoring during the 10-minute overtime but his shot hit the crossbar.
It is the first time the U.S. has defeated Russia in the knockout round at the world junior hockey championship. They were previously 0-7.
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Down 2-1 in the second period, the Americans scored back-to-back goals.
Kunin got the first on the power play at 10:23. The Minnesota Wild first-round draft pick completed a beautiful tic-tac-toe play from Jeremy Bracco and Jordan Greenway.
White put the Americans in front six minutes later when his wrist shot from the left faceoff dot took a deflection off Russian defenceman Yegor Rykov and eluded Samsonov's glove.
Clayton Keller could have put the game to bed for the Americans when he was awarded a penalty shot at 5:14 of the third. White went high with his backhand but Samsonov made a nice glove save.
Guryanov tied things up at 3-3 less than a minute later, beating Parsons five-hole on a breakaway.
Kaprizov continued his electrifying tournament, scoring on a wraparound at 11:54 of the first period to get the Russians on the board.
It was the first time the Americans trailed in this tournament.
White tied it up with his first goal of the game from an impossible angle with 55 seconds remaining in the first period, throwing the puck on net from the corner of the ice.
Guryanov put the Russians back in front 2-1 at 1:17 of the second period.
The Americans got a bit of a scare midway through the second period after Russian forward Polunin knocked into Parsons' head. Parsons remained stretched out on the ice for several minutes before he was able to resume play.
Wednesday's game was a rematch of last year's semifinal, when the Russians defeated the Americans 2-1. Washington Capitals prospect Samsonov was also between the pipes for Russia in that one.
It was also the second encounter between these two teams in this year's tournament, with the Americans beating Russia 3-2 in the preliminary round on Dec. 29.
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