Finns into final

"This is the biggest thing ever in the history of Finnish hockey," said Koivu. "I know if we win it will be the biggest thing in my career."

Niittymaki beat out Russian counterpart Evgeni Nabokov as the match pitted the two top ranked goaltenders in the tournament. Nabokov came into the match with a 98% save percentage just in front of Niittymaki who has saved 96% of the shots he has faced so far.

Both teams were extemely physical from the opening whistle. Aki-Petteri Berg was levelled in the opening minutes of the game by a ferocious hit from Viktor Kozlov.

Russian sensation Alexander Ovechkin was at the heart of almost every move forward that his team made. The Russian offense came out firing on all cylinders after their inspirational win over defending gold medallists, Canada, on Wednesday.

But it was the Finns who got off the mark first as Peltonene redirected a Kimmo Timonen slap shot that skipped past Nabokov in the 6th minute.

The Russians stayed within a goal until 28 minutes when defenseman Toni Lydman put his weight into a huge slap shot that scorched into the top corner of Nabokov's net.

Saku Koivu struck four minutes later when he fortuitously knocked the puck into the net with his shin pad. Again Kimmo Timonen was at the heart of the play as his long range effort ricocheted off the back boards and came spinning out into the crease where a sprawling Nabokov could not keep out the rebound

In the 49th minute the Finns put the game out of reach as they broke out of their own end with numbers. Peltonen lead the three on one charge and was patient in finding Olli Jokinen, tied for the second in points scored, at the far end of Nabokov's crease.

The pass beat the Russian goaltender laterally and all Jokinen had to do was make good contact to brush the puck past Nabokov's outstretched skate. Jokinen took his goal total in Torino to six tying team mate Teemu Selanne for the tournament's top goal scoring honour.

Russia's impressive crop of young goal scorers was held at bay by a fine team performance from the Finnish defense.

The trio of Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Ovechkin and Pavel Datsyuk scored a combined 20 points in the six games leading up to Friday night's match.

"We didn't play as disciplined as we needed to. We're young players and maybe we tried too hard to do what we thought was needed instead of playing more as a team today," said the 27-year-old Datsyuk.

Russia, who have been carried by their offense, lacked goals at the most crucial time. Kovalchuk had four shots on net while Datsyuk had two and Ovechkin three. The three youngsters rarely created good chances on Niittymaki's net.

The dominating win sets up an all-Nordic final as the Swedes advanced by beating the Cezech Republic 7-3 earlier on Friday. The bitter rivals will face-off for one of the biggest honours in international ice hockey. Finland have never won an Olympic gold in ice hockey.

"Every time we play Sweden it's a big game, it doesn't matter if it's the world championships or an exhibition game," said Finn defenceman Timonen.