Watch Finland vs United States Live Streaming

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3:00 PM ET

The Americans have yet to lose in this tournament, but they refuse to get too far ahead of themselves. They know that they need to get better in several areas -- most notably on the power play and with their play in the neutral zone -- if they hope to get to the gold-medal game. Despite the fact that the Americans got the game-winner on thepower play in Wednesday's quarterfinal game against the Swiss, they have struggled with the man advantage. In four games, the Americans have earned 16 power-play opportunities and scored four goals. Finland, by contrast, has seven. How bad was the American power-play against the Swiss? "We were wondering if we could just decline the penalties and pick up the flag like they do in football," Backes joked.

The Finns haven't scored an even-strength goal against a manned net in its past two games. They won Wednesday's quarterfinal against the Czechs will a power-play goal by Niklas Hagman and an empty-net tally. Three days earlier, in the final group game against rival Sweden, the Finns were shut out. So scoring is an issue -- especially because Selanne and Koivu -- two-thirds of the Finns' top line and the co-leading scorers four years ago in Turin -- have yet to manage a goal. So clearly offense is an issue heading into the semifinal, but it is not paralyzing the Finns. "We won't score four, five goals against top countries, so we have to play defense well," Finnish coach Jukka Jalonen said. "We have to snuff them out, maybe let them score one goal, maximum two goals; and then we have a chance to win the game."Finland can play like that because Kiprusoff has been terrific. He already has two shutouts and leads the tournament in save percentage.

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Watch Slovakia vs Canada Live Streaming

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9:30 PM ET

The Slovaks were so happy with their win over Sweden on Wednesday night that they decided to burn that celebration oil well into Thursday. Like the Canadians, they did not hold a practice. Unlike the Canadians, they were not ready to move on to the next game when morning dawned. Slovakia has a lot to celebrate, but the Slovaks now have a lot to deal with, too. The Canadians pose an even bigger threat than the Swedes because of their overall size, skill and speed. Sweden also never got untracked offensively in the tournament, which is another reason it bowed out early.

It will be interesting to see how Babcock plays this one. Canada will get the advantage of having the last change as a result of a better goal differential in the preliminary round (7-5), and Babcock is hot on matchups. He formed a five-man unit of Jonathan Toews, Mike Richards, Rick Nash, Shea Weber and Scott Niedermayer to shut down Russia's top line of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Semin. Slovakia smartly skates Hossa and Gaborik on separate lines, and both are right wings.

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