The Finns were backed by a raucous home crowd at the Nokia Arena as they dominated substantial spells of the game.

However, Canada were devastating on the counter attack and it was Jack Quinn that broke the deadlock in the eighth minute.

Samuel Blais, Michael Carcone, and captain Tyler Toffoli all put their names on the scoresheet while Teemu Hartikainen was the only goalscorer for the hosts.

The United States are now just two wins away from earning their first men's World Championship gold medal since 1933.

They downed Czech Republic 3-0 thanks to goals from Matt Coronato, Nick Perbix, and Cutter Gauthier.

"We're as confident as we can be, but we know how hard a tournament it is to win in, how hard a tournament it is to medal in," said US captain Nick Bonino.

"Whoever we get next is a semi-finalist in a World Championship.

"So we'll focus on our game.

"We'll watch them and their tendencies a little bit, but the focus has been on us so far for eight games, and we'll keep it that way."

They will meet Germany in the semi-finals after a surprise 3-1 win against the Group B winners.

"It's a pretty amazing feeling right now," said German forward Justin Schutz.

"We just said we have to play our game.

"We lost the first three games in the group stage, all close, then we won four straight.

"We have a lot of confidence.

"Our game is just good forechecks, hard on the guy, pucks deep, good in the D zone.

"That's what we did today."

Latvia took the final semi-final spot as they also produced an upset by beating Sweden 3-1.

The competition is set to continue on Saturday (May 27) with both fixtures in the final four.