MOSCOW, May 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will face Finland in the semifinals of the 2007 Ice Hockey World Championship in Moscow Saturday, after the Finnish team edged the United States in a tense 5-4 penalty shootout during Thursday's quarterfinal.

The Russian team, which has seven straight wins on its way to the semifinals, has already played Finland once in the tournament managing to come out victorious with a 5-4 score line.

On May 1 Russia came out after the first two periods with a 4-1 advantage over the Finns, who made a brilliant comeback in the third period scoring three more goals allowing Russia to respond with just a single goal to snatch victory.

But this time with Finland the Russian squad will miss its best scorer Alexei Morozov, who will miss the match with a knee injury.

In another semifinal match on Saturday Sweden will meet with Canada, which slammed Switzerland 5-1 Thursday.

Although the Russian team is currently ranked 5th in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Russian hockey fans are pinning great hopes on their national team, which has not won the championship for 13 years. However, Russians consider Moscow a lucky venue bringing gold to the Soviet Union team in 1973, 1979 and 1986 - the last three times the Russian capital hosted the World Championship.