Canada's Men's Olympic hockey team advanced to the semi-final with a 2-1 victory over Finland, Wednesday night at the E Center in Salt Lake City.

Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic opened the scoring at the 3:00 mark of the first period, after taking a nice feed from Simon Gagne and putting a backhander past Finnish goaltender Jani Hurme to put Canada up 1-0. Sakic's goal would send Canada to the dressing room leading by one.

In the second period, Canada would take a two-goal lead after Steve Yzerman converted a Mario Lemieux pass to put Canada up by two. Canada's two-goal lead would be short lived as Finland scored 20 seconds later, as Niklas Hagman put a shot past Canadian goaltender Martin Brodeur. Canada outshot Finland 14-8 in the second period and was up 2-1 heading into the third period.

Canada continued to pound Jani Hurme with shots in the third period, but were unsuccessful, leaving it up to Brodeur to shut down Finland. Brodeur did just that as he made six third period saves to preserve the 2-1 victory for Canada.

Canada will now play Belarus in one of Friday's semi-final match-ups. The last time Canada faced Belarus in Olympic play, Canada defeated Belarus 5-0 in the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. In Friday's other semi-final, USA will play Russia.

The winners of the semi-final games will face each other in the gold medal game on Sunday at 1:00pm (MT) at the E Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.