Ice hockey-US through to World Championship semis after 5-2 win over Finland

By Philip O'Connor

STOCKHOLM, May 22 (Reuters) - Winger Conor Garland scored twice as Team USA came from a goal down to ease past Finland 5-2 on Thursday, booking their spot in Saturday's semi-finals of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship.

After withstanding early Finnish pressure, the Americans took the lead at the 4:50 mark as Logan Cooley slipped a beautiful pass across the ice for Garland to rattle home but, with Cooley later sin-binned for delaying the game, the Finns struck back through Eeli Tolvanen.

The Finns took a 2-1 lead thanks to a Patrick Puistola goal that capped another well-executed power play but the U.S. levelled when Zeev Buium swept home the rebound from a Mattie Beniers shot and they went ahead when Garland's fortuitous effort deflected off the stick of Mikael Seppala and into the net.

Shane Pinto gave the Finns a mountain to climb when he scored six minutes into the second period to make it 4-2 and Clayton Keller fired into an empty net with just under three minutes left to condemn 2022 champs Finland to a third straight exit at the quarter-final stage.

In the afternoon's other quarter-final in Herning, Denmark, Switzerland thrashed Austria 6-0. Canada will take on the Danes at the same venue later in the evening, while Sweden host the Czech Republic in Stockholm.