PRAGUE - Canada swept aside Belarus 9-0 as Dallas forward Tyler Seguin helped himself to a hat-trick in the ice hockey world championship quarter-finals on Thursday.
Goalkeeper Kevin Lalande of Belarus (R) reacts to an attempt by forward Claude Giroux of Canada during the quarter-final match between of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Prague on May 14, 2015
They joined the United States in Saturday's semi-finals after the Americans had earlier come from behind to down Switzerland 3-1.
Canada trashed hapless Belarus for their eighth win in as many games as they bid for their first world title since 2007.
San Jose defenceman Brent Burns opened the score 27 seconds into the game and Tyler Ennis, Ryan O'Reilly and Seguin made it 4-0 before the end of the first period.
Canada bombarded Canadian-born Kevin Lalande in the Belarussian goal with 20 shots in the opening period, against a mere three shots for Belarus.
Olympic champions from 2010 and 2014, Canada continued to dominate the game in the second period, with Seguin and Burns adding their second goals of the day.
Seguin completed his hat-trick on 51 minutes, O'Reilly scored his second and Jason Spezza rounded off the scoring in the final period as Canada peppered Lalande with 50 shots in total.
"Someone is blessing me in this arena," said Seguin, who also scored his first NHL goal against Phoenix in Prague in 2010.
"We won by a margin because we kept playing our game," he added.
"The way we played in the first, coming after them, that's the way we need to play," said Canada captain Sidney Crosby.
"It was good to get the first one and get some momentum early," added the Pittsburgh star.
"The important thing is to get better every game and there's a point you've got to be at your best, it's win or go home, so we did a good job to do that."
In the opening quarter-final in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava, Group B winners the USA came back from 1-0 down to beat Switzerland 3-1.
Nashville defenceman Roman Josi put Switzerland ahead on 14 minutes as he grabbed the puck in the Swiss defending zone and cut through the stunned US defence to beat Connor Hellebuyck in the US goal.
But the US team came back within a minute midway through the game as San Jose forward Ben Smith fired in a pass from Jimmy Vesey and Minnesota forward Charlie Coyle tipped in a slap shot by Seth Jones.
Toronto defenceman Jake Gardiner made it 3-1 on 51 minutes, beating Colorado goalie Reto Berra in the Swiss goal with a deflected wrist shot from the blue line.
In the semi-finals on Saturday, Canada will take on either Finland or the Czech Republic and the USA will face either Russia or Sweden.
The other two quarter-final games are scheduled for later on Thursday.
The final is scheduled for Sunday.