Dylan Larkin celebrates a U.S. goal in the 6-2 semifinal win over Slovakia in the Milan Olympics on Friday. (AP photo)

MILAN (AP) — Zach Werenski and his U.S. teammates tried not to look ahead at a potential gold-medal game against Canada at the Olympics. After each went unbeaten in group play, there was no way the North American rivals could meet before the final, but there was work left to do.

After routing Slovakia 6-2 in the semifinals on Friday night, the much-anticipated but never guaranteed U.S.-Canada showdown for gold is on.

“It’s the matchup everyone wanted,” Werenski said after his three-assist performance against Slovakia. “Now that it’s finally here, we can kind of shift our focus to Canada.”

The two top seeds in the tournament, who went in as the favorites, will meet Sunday. It comes a year after the U.S. and Canada played two memorable games against each other at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

“It’s the final that we wanted and the team that we wanted to play,” winger Matt Boldy said. “It’s exciting for the fans and for hockey and everything like that.”

That NHL-run event ended a drought of nearly a decade without an international tournament featuring the best hockey players in the world. Three fights in the first nine seconds in the first meeting put the 4 Nations in the spotlight, and their epic final won by Canada in overtime only built the anticipation for the Olympics.

“Now that it’s all set in stone, everything happens for a reason,” said Brady Tkachuk, who along with brother Matthew and J.T. Miller were involved in the 4 Nations fisticuffs. “We’ll be looking forward to this one. You guys have been talking about it for a while. Now you get to enjoy it.”

After Canada did its part by rallying to beat Finland earlier in the day, the U.S. had no trouble against the Slovaks, who made an improbable run and were simply overmatched. They’ll face the Finns for bronze on Saturday night, looking for just the second hockey medal in the country’s history after getting the first with a third-place finish in Beijing in 2022.

The U.S. is playing for gold after the semifinals were a much easier go than the quarterfinals against Sweden, when overtime was needed to survive a scare. Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson, Jack Hughes and Jack Eichel scored the four goals on 23 shots that chased Samuel Hlavaj out of Slovakia’s net past the midway point of the second period.

Thompson, one of just a handful of newcomers who did not play at the 4 Nations, exited later in the second after blocking a shot and did not return. Coach Mike Sullivan said Thompson “was held out for precautionary reasons more than anything.”

“We’ll see how he recovers, but I anticipate him being ready for game time,” Sullivan said.

Hughes got his second goal of the game just after a power play expired, and Brady Tkachuk scored on a breakaway with just over nine minutes left to provide some more breathing room.

“That was definitely one of our strongest games, for sure,” said Quinn Hughes, who along with brother Jack have been the best U.S. players in Milan. “For the most part, we played really well. A little bit looser there in the third, but it’s a 5-0 game and you want to get out safe and feel good for the next game.”

Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck did his job as his teammates outshot Slovakia by a substantial margin. Everything he has done at the Olympics has validated Sullivan’s decision to go with Hellebuyck as the U.S. starter over Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman.

The U.S. last reached the final in 2010, when it lost to Canada in overtime on Sidney Crosby’s famous golden goal. Crosby’s status is uncertain this time after getting injured in the quarterfinals Wednesday and not playing Friday against Finland.

The last U.S. men’s hockey gold came in 1980 with the “Miracle on Ice” in Lake Placid.

“It definitely motivates us,” Werenski said. “We’ve talked about. We’re well aware of it. I don’t think it’s pressure. It’s fun. It’s exciting.”

CANADA 3, FINLAND 2

Falling behind for a second consecutive game at the Olympics, after never trailing throughout group play, Canada dug itself an even deeper hole in the semifinals against Finland.

Down two goals against an opponent also full of NHL players, the tournament favorite did not look the slightest bit shook.

“There wasn’t really any panic,” center Nick Suzuki said. “We were going to get our chances eventually.”

Then, the most talented roster in Milan buried those chances. Sam Reinhart deflected Cale Makar’s shot in to start the comeback, Shea Theodore tied it on a blast through traffic and Nathan MacKinnon scored the go-ahead goal with 35.2 seconds left to advance to the gold medal game with a 3-2 victory Friday night.

“You could definitely feel the sense of calm, having been through that before,” McDavid said. “We understood we were in a tough spot, and we had to find a way to get out of it. And we did.”

Makar thought he and his teammates were more comfortable down 2-0 against Finland than when they fell behind against Czechia twice in the quarterfinals, including with seven minutes left.

It showed. After Erik Haula scored shorthanded to make it a two-goal deficit early in the second period, Canada outshot Finland 31-8 the rest of the way.

Juuse Saros was terrific in net for Finland, and Canada coach Jon Cooper was worried only about getting shut out by a hot goaltender. Reinhart’s goal with 4:40 left in the second cut some of the tension, and it was clear the game was turning.

Cooper was also glad his players didn’t want until three minutes left to tie it like in the quarterfinals. Theodore’s goal came with 9:26 left in regulation after Brad Marchand was on top of Saros following a shove from Haula.

“Brad’s being Brad, and I like to have Brad,” Cooper said of Marchand, who got pushed but didn’t do much to stop falling into the opposing goalie.

Nathan MacKinnon took over late, looking like a man on a mission and drawing a second high-sticking penalty on Niko Mikkola. On the ensuing power play, McDavid sent a perfect cross-ice saucer pass over penalty killer Roope Hintz’s stick to MacKinnon, who sneaked the puck short side through a miniscule hole with Macklin Celebrini setting a screen by jumping.

It held up on video review after Finland challenged that the play was offside.

“It was a five-man effort,” MacKinnon said. “Connor made an amazing play, Cale was doing his thing, Reino same thing. Obviously happy one squeaked in. Yeah, great pass.”

Canada came back again without injured captain Sidney Crosby, who left the quarterfinal game Wednesday night with an apparent right knee injury. McDavid wore the “C” in Crosby’s absence and had two assists to break the record for the most points by an NHL player at a single Olympics with 13.

“We’re a deep team with leaders all up and down the lineup,” McDavid said. “It doesn’t matter who’s wearing the ‘C,’ who’s in the lineup, who’s out of the lineup. Everybody can play a big role and lead, and you saw that again.”

Cooper said there’s still time to decide if Crosby can play in the final on Sunday.