Joe Thornton collected three assists and Martin Brodeur stopped 39 shots, as Canada held on to defeat Russia, 4-3, in Saturday's semifinals of the World Hockey Championships. Wade Redden, Sheldon Souray, Dany Heatley and Ed Jovanovski tallied goals for the two-time defending champion Canadians, who will face the winner of the Sweden/Czech Republic game in Sunday's gold medal contest. "It doesn't matter who we play," said Thornton, a center for the Boston Bruins. "We'll watch the game tonight and play again tomorrow." Redden opened the scoring just 1:38 into the game when his long shot trickled through the legs of Russian netminder Maxim Sokolov. Souray made it 2-0 just over four minutes later with a one-timer off a pass from Thornton. Heatley increased Canada's advantage to three goals midway through the first period. Penalties to Evgeni Malkin and Denis Denisov put the Russians down two men. Canada cashed in, as Heatley took a feed from Shane Doan in front and slipped the puck behind Sokolov. Jovanovski then gave the Canadians a seemingly comfortable 4-0 lead early in the second period, taking a centering pass from Thornton and one-timing a shot from the slot past Sokolov. Russia finally got on the board at 14:22 of the middle period. Alexander Semin picked up the puck in the left circle following a faceoff in the Canada zone and fired a shot high over the glove of Brodeur. The Russians cut the deficit to 4-2 in the final minute of the stanza. Alexei Yashin attempted a centering pass from the left circle and the puck deflected off the skate of Canada defenseman Chris Phillips and past Brodeur. Russia then pulled within a goal at 6:27 of the third period thanks to a tally by Alexander Ovechkin, who redirected a perfect cross-ice pass from Malkin past Brodeur. However, the New Jersey Devils goaltender would not be beaten again. He preserved the win by making a pair of great saves on close-in attempts in the final seconds after Russia pulled the goalie in favor of an extra skater. "The game is 60 minutes, so we knew we could come back," said Russian forward Alexei Kovalev. "We have a lot of character and a lot of heart. We just ran out of time."