We are into the business end of the IIHF slate now. Ten teams have gone home. Four remain, and three medals await...but the most coveted prize is the gold, and each of these teams are two wins away from it. I'm your host Val Pix, coming to you from Paris for the penultimate day of the Season 69 IIHF tournament. Who will play for gold? Who will settle for bronze? Let's find out.

 Finland 4-5 Canada  (OT)

Let's start with the more climactic of the two, shall we? Canada narrowly averted an upset in the quarterfinals against Japan, and Finland was ready for the fight. David-Arturri Donskoi opened the scoring just over two minutes in, tapping home from the slot past Anthony Dionne to give Finland a 1-0 lead. That lead wouldn't last a minute, however, as a sloppy clearance by the Finns set up a great feed by Ben Waters Jr., who found Shylo Moxii for a tap-in just 35 seconds after Leijonat opened the scoring. 

Finland re-took the lead later in the first period. Dionne denied Walton Stromberg's deflection of an Eero Makela point shot, but Yannick Svoboda cleaned up the garbage. Donskoi added insurance early in the second to make it 3-1 Finland.

That insurance goal seemed to awaken the beast. Less than a minute later, Ricky Koivu ripped one home off a broken play and cut the lead in half. Late in the period, Ben Jammin's shot was blocked, but Luc Blouin was Johnny on the spot for the rebound to level the game up. Canada erased the deficit and now had all the momentum...and just a couple minutes later, Kev Kevens converted on a similar play and Canada had the lead.

Finland weren't going to go down without a fight. But it took them a while to find that equalizer.

With less than two minutes to go, KEKW Kekkonen tipped a shot by Shoyo Hinata past a frozen Dionne. Tie game. Overtime for Canada for the second straight knockout game. And while Finland had the score momentum, Canada would start OT with a carryover power play.

They did nothing on that power play. But Canada would have the last laugh.

Off a faceoff win just outside the Finnish defensive zone, Moxii and Guðmundur Kristjánsson played a quick one-two. Moxii then found Waters Jr. And Waters Jr. found twine, with a shot that Mat Smith couldn't stop.

Canada has a shot now at their first gold medal since S58. But who will they face?....

 Great Britain 0-5 Sweden  

Well. This one was a bit....less climactic. 

Britain's defense and goaltending had been excellent in the tournament. But the reigning champs are the reigning champs for a reason: they are ruthless. 

The scoring got started midway through the first via an Aleks Blixtstrom point shot on the power play. And then the goals really started to come.

82 seconds later, Luke Laraque cleaned up a rebound to push the lead to 2-0. Only 37 seconds later, Matsmith Söderberg-Tremblay snuck into the slot and ripped a shot past Alexis Texas. 3-0. Two and a half minutes after that, it was Jimmy Wagner's turn, ripping one from the top of the slot. 4-0 Sweden in the first, and that was curtains for Texas, as GB swapped him out for Jeff Newman.

Newman stopped the goals bleeding (aside from an early second period point shot by Adelie de Pengu), but the goalie change did little to change the Brits' fortunes. The offense never ignited, and Willie Miller needed just 15 saves for the shutout. Tre Kronor will have a shot to retain their crown.

Medal Games:

Gold:  Canada vs Sweden  
Bronze:  Great Britain vs Finland  

Who's taking gold? Who gets bronze? Tune in tomorrow for the finale of the S69 IIHF tournament!

(682 words, feel free to grade)