Team Russia Yevgeni Kuznetsov, right, celebrates his overtime game winning goal with teammate Sergei Kalinin, left, after defeating Team Finland 4-3 during third period IIHF World Junior Championship hockey action in Buffalo, N.Y., on Sunday, January 2, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan DenetteNathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Yevgeni Kuznetsov sparked a rally from a two-goal deficit by scoring late in the third period and then adding the overtime winner as Russia stunned Finland 4-3 in a world junior hockey championship quarter-final Sunday night.
The Finns appeared to be in total control up 3-1 with less than four-minutes to play when Kuznetsov scored on a power play at 16:19.
Just 2:03 later, Kuznetsov assisted on Maxim Kitsyn's equalizer and then he won it at 6:44 of overtime, sending the Russians into a semifinal against Sweden on Monday afternoon.
The winner of that game will face the victor of the other semifinal between Canada and the defending champion United States for gold.
Yuri Urychev also scored for Russia while Dmitri Shikin made 34 saves.
Teemu Pulkkinen had a goal and assist, while Julius Junttila and Joonas Donskoi also scored for Finland, which got 41 saves from Joni Ortio.
In relegation round play, Slovakia beat Norway 5-0, and the Czech Republic edged Germany 3-2.
The Czechs and Slovaks clinched berths in next year's tournament, while Norway and Germany were relegated.