GOYANG, South Korea – Canada’s National Sledge Team will meet the United States for the gold medal at the 2013 IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship following a 5-0 win over the Czech Republic in Thursday’s semifinal.

Saturday’s gold medal game (3:30 a.m. ET/12:30 a.m. PT) can be seen live via webcast at www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv.

In Thursday’s early semifinal, the United States defeated Russia 3-0 to earn a spot in the gold medal game for the second consecutive year.

Saturday’s game will be the first between Canada and the U.S. in the IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship gold medal game. The Americans beat Canada 2-1 in the semifinals at last year’s world championship in Hamar, Norway.

On Thursday, Canada got two goals from Greg Westlake (Oakville, Ont.) and one each from Adam Dixon (Midland, Ont.) and Marc Dorion (Bourget, Ont.) to open up a 4-0 lead after two periods. Dominic Larocque (Quebec City, Que.) rounded out the scoring in the third for the Canadians, who are into the gold medal game for the first time since winning their last world title in 2008.

Canada finished first in Group B during the preliminary round with a 3-0 record, including wins over Italy (5-0), Korea (5-0) and Russia (4-3). Brad Bowden (Orton, Ont.) enters the final leading the tournament in scoring with 10 points in four games, while goaltender Corbin Watson (Kingsville, Ont.) has yet to allow a goal in three games.

In six appearances at the IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship, Canada has won two gold medals (2000, 2008) and three bronze medals (1996, 2009, 2012), finishing fourth in 2004.

NOTE TO MEDIA – Keegan Goodrich, Hockey Canada’s coordinator of media relations, is on site with the team and can assist with any media interview requests. He can be reached at [email protected] or 403-519-5754.

Follow Hockey Canada’s sledge hockey program online at www.hockeycanada.ca, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hcsledge and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/hc_sledge.