DAVOS, Switzerland – Canada’s National Men’s Team has advanced to the championship game at the 2010 Spengler Cup following a 4-0 semifinal victory over HC Davos (SUI) on Thursday. Canada will face SKA St. Petersburg (RUS) in the championship game on Friday, December 31, beginning at 6 a.m. ET/3 a.m. PT, live on TSN (check your local listings).

In Thursday’s semifinal, Canada got goals from Josh Holden (Calgary, Alta.), Mark Bell (St. Pauls Station, Ont.), J-P Vigier (Notre Dame des Lourdes, Man.) and Pascal Pelletier (Labrador City, N.L.) and 29 saves from Jeff Deslauriers (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.) to avenge its only loss of the tournament, a 3-2 preliminary round setback at the hands of Davos on Tuesday.

Canada finished second in Group Cattini in the preliminary round, which included a 6-1 win over Spartak Moscow (RUS) and the loss to Davos, and beat Sparta Prague (CZE) 4-3 in Wednesday’s quarter-final thanks to an overtime winner from Micki Dupont (Calgary, Alta.).

In Thursday’s other semifinal, SKA St. Peterburg beat Genève-Servette 4-3 in overtime.

Including Friday’s game, Canada has now appeared in nine of the last 11 championship games, winning the Spengler Cup in 2002, 20. Overall, Canada’s National Men’s Team has won the Spengler Cup 11 times (1984, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2007) since first taking part in the tournament in 1984.

 
The Spengler Cup, held annually since 1923, is the oldest professional international hockey tournament in the world.