The drive for five is still alive.
Canada's junior hockey team is one victory away from their country's fifth straight gold medal at the world junior hockey championship.
Canada reached the final for an eighth consecutive year with a thrilling 6-5 shootout win over Russia in Saturday's semifinal.
Sweden, a 5-3 winner over Slovakia in an earlier semifinal, will be Canada's opponent for gold Monday (TSN, 7:30 p.m. ET).
It's a rematch of last year's world junior final in Pardubice, Czech Republic, where Canada beat the Swedes 3-2 in overtime for the country's fourth straight gold.
The hosts are attempting to tie the country's record of five set between 1993 and 1997.
"There's nothing else we want," forward John Tavares said. "There's nothing else we came here for."
But the country's run of gold looked to be on life support Saturday when Dmitri Klopov scored with just two minutes 20 seconds remaining in regulation.
With 19,327 at Scotiabank Place on their feet and urging Canada on, Jordan Eberle of the Regina Pats came to the rescue.
Goaltender Dustin Tokarski was pulled for an extra attacker and the first-round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers tied it with just five seconds left to keep his country's dream of another gold alive.
Russian defenceman Dmitri Kulikov was on his knees in front of the net trying to freeze the puck, but Eberle stole it and beat Russian goalie Vadim Zhelobynyuk with a backhand.
"I didn't ever give up and I think that's the biggest thing for Team Canada," Eberle said. "We didn't give up all throughout the game.
"We obviously realize the pressure on us, but pressure is one of those things you just push aside and you apply it, rather than feel it."
After a scoreless 10-minute overtime, it went to a shootout. Eberle scored on Zhelobynyuk, Dmitri Kurgryshev hit the post, Tavares scored and then Tokarski stopped Pavel Chernov for the victory.
"We knew what the goalie's tendency was and he has a tendency to go down," Eberle said. "Me and Johnny kind of did the same move, opposite hands."
The Russians tied the game four times and were so close to advancing to the gold-medal game with their best game of this tournament.
"I don't believe it," said disconsolate Russian defenceman Maxim Goncharov. "It's very hard."
Eberle scored a pair of goals in regulation in addition to his shootout effort.
Brett Sonne of the Calgary Hitmen, Patrice Cormier of the Rimouski Oceanic and Angelo Esposito of the Montreal Junior also scored during regulation. Evander Kane of the Vancouver Giants had two assists. Tokarski stopped 23 of 28 shots in regulation.
Klopov scored twice for the Russians, who also got goals from Goncharov, Evgeni Grachev and Sergei Andronov. Evgeni Dadonov had two assists. Zhelobnyuk made 36 saves during regulation time.
It's the third time in as many years where Canada had to win a medal-round game in either overtime or a shootout. Two years ago in Leksand, Sweden, the Canadians beat the U.S. in a semifinal shootout.
These Canadian players watched that game on television and four of them -- Tavares, P.K. Subban, Zach Boychuk and Thomas Hickey -- were part of the overtime victory over Sweden last year.
The heroics of their predecessors gave this edition of Canada's junior hockey team the belief they could still win despite trailing a goal with just over two minutes left.
"That's the great thing about Canadians," Tavares said. "We don't quit and we fight right until the end, no matter what, and that little extra effort right at the end made the difference for us to tie the game and into a shootout."
Canada has won its four straight gold medals on the strength of its defence, but this team has given up nine goals in their last two games.
Quinn wasn't committing to going with Tokarski again in the final. He felt some of the goals scored on Tokarski were questionable, but liked his goalie's performance in the shootout.
Russia had done its homework on the Canadians power play that was running 60 per cent heading into this game. The Russians pushed the Canadians towards the boards, pressured the quarterbacks and quickly covered off the open man.
Canada was held to one goal on nine chances a man up. Eberle scored his first of the game at the end of a 5-on-3 at 16:40 of the second period.
Esposito scored a short-handed goal on a breakaway at 5:44 of the third period to give his team a brief 4-3 lead, but Andronov tied it up with power-play goal less than a minute later.
Kelowna Rockets defenceman Tyler Myers knelt to block a shot by Maxim Chudinov early in the second period and it rocketed off his knee. Myers went immediately to the dressing room, but returned for the third period.
Boychuk of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who has a sprained ankle, played sparingly after the first period, which gave a lot of playing time to 17-year-old Kane.
"It's a great opportunity to be a part of history," Kane said. "Sweden is going to be a tough team and we're really going to have to bring our 'A' game on Monday."
He and Patrice Cormier and Stefan Della Rovere were the most dynamic forward line in the opening 20 minutes as they created scoring chances and forechecked the Russians hard.
Notes: The 2009 world junior tournament in Ottawa set the attendance record of 377,834 after Saturday's semifinal to beat the previous mark of 374,353 from Vancouver in 2006 . . . Canadian defenceman Ryan Ellis of the Windsor Spitfires celebrated his 18th birthday Saturday. . . . Canada is 9-6-1 all-time in the world junior tournament versus Russia since 1993 and, before that, 5-10-1 versus the Soviet Union.
