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Friday May 16, 12:08 PM World ice hockey championship semi-finals are rematch of 2007 Photo: AFP QUEBEC CITY, Canada (AFP) - The Swedes and Russians will be seeking revenge, and Canada will try to remain unbeaten in the semi-finals of the World Ice Hockey Championships on Friday. Two unbeaten teams in Russia and Canada, the reigning Olympic gold medallist in Sweden and last year's runner-up Finland all advanced out of the quarter-finals for the second consecutive year. It is the first time they have had repeat semi-finalists in the event, which has never been held in Canada before in the 100-year history of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Russia and Finland kick things off in the first of two semis on Friday at the 15,399-seat Quebec Colisee arena. This year the tournament has been hosted in both Halifax and Quebec City. Canada and Finland travelled from Halifax to Quebec Thursday to join the other two teams for the semis, bronze medal and gold medal games. Host Canada is the favourite as they are riding a 16-game winning streak at the Worlds dating back to last year when they went 9-0 in the Moscow Worlds. After narrowly beating World No 14 Norway in the round robin the Canadians have been picking up steam. They followed the win over Norway with a 10-1 drubbing of the Germans and then doubled feisty Finland 6-3 in their final game of the round-robin. Canada, which is trying to become the first team to win the worlds on home soil since 1986, will face their biggest test against a group of no-name Swedes. Derek Roy, who scored three goals in Canada's 8-2 quarter-final victory over Norway on Wednesday said switching venues won't be a problem. "We already played a couple of exhibition games in Quebec so we know what it is going to be like," Buffalo Sabres Roy said. The trio of Rick Nash, Ryan Getzlaf and Dany Heatley have been the most dangerous line for Canada. They carried the Canadians on their backs through the first few games when the other three lines had trouble scoring but now the second and third lines have started to find the net as well. Sweden's strength is a group of little known stalwarts and one of the greatest goaltenders in the game in Henrik Lundqvist. This is the eighth straight year the Swedes have reached the semis. They lost 4-1 to Canada last year. This year they have been getting the job done without their biggest National Hockey League stars. Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund and the Sedin twins are all skipping the tournament or are injured. "But it is good to show everyone they were wrong," said Swedish player Anton Stralman. "We have a group of players who play back in Sweden, so it is good to feel confidence in the group and to show everyone what we can do." What the Swedes do have is eight players back from last year's Worlds team. They are Magnus Johansson, Kenny Jonsson, Stralman, Nicklas Backstrom, Patric Hornqvist, Tony Martensson, Fredrik Warg and Rickard Wallin. Like Sweden, Finland has their work cut out for them as they try to halt the Big Red Machine from Russia. The Russians steamrolled their way through the round-robin then stomp Switzerland 6-0 in Wednesday's quarter-final. The Russians will be without forward Ilya Kovalchuk, who was assessed his second game misconduct of the tournament for a hit on Switzerland's Julien Vauclair on Wednesday. Kovalchuk was also ejected for fighting Sweden's Stralman on Saturday.