HAMAR, Norway – Canada’s National Sledge Team is into the semifinals at the 2012 IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship after completing an undefeated preliminary round with a 4-1 win over Norway on Wednesday afternoon.

Canada finished Group B play with a 3-0 record, including wins over Italy (3-1) and Korea (2-0), and will face the defending world champions from the United States in a semifinal on Thursday (noon ET/9 a.m. PT).

Thursday’s other semifinal will feature the Czech Republic taking on Korea. The semifinal winners will meet Sunday in the gold medal game (8:30 a.m. ET/5:30 a.m. PT). All games at the 2012 IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship can be seen live via webcast at www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv.

On Wednesday, Canada got goals from four different players – Dominic Larocque (Quebec City, Que.), Adam Dixon (Midland, Ont.), Kieran Block (Edmonton, Alta.) and Greg Westlake (Oakville, Ont.) – to erase an early 1-0 deficit and top the Norwegians.

Billy Bridges (Summerside, P.E.I.) finished the preliminary round as Canada’s top scorer with four points (two goals, two assists), good for second in tournament scoring, while Corbin Watson (Kingsville, Ont.) had the second-best goals against average at 0.50.

“Our goal coming in was to improve from game to game, and we’ve done that so far,” said Mike Mondin, head coach of Canada’s National Sledge Team. “I’m confident our best is yet to come.”

Canada and the United States last met at the IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship in a 2009 semifinal, won 2-1 in a shootout by the Americans. Overall, Canada has three wins, a loss and an overtime loss in five all-time meetings with its southern rival at the world championship.

In five appearances at the IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship, Canada has won two gold medals (2000, 2008) and two bronze medals (1996, 2009), finishing fourth in 2004.

For more information on Canada’s National Sledge Team and the 2012 IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship, please visit www.HockeyCanada.ca/sledgeteam or follow along via social media at www.facebook.com/hockeycanada and www.twitter.com/hc_sledge.