"That was a pretty tough game," Ekblad said. "I'm expecting something similar to that.

"I'm not talking the outcome — I'm talking how hard they work. They're a great team and they had a lot of opportunities to score against us so we're going to try to limit that."

Though Canada leads the tournament with an average of 7.25 goals scored per game, head coach Todd McLellan says his group continues to emphasize defence.

"We've been fortunate that way, that when we get ourselves in trouble we can score our way out of it," said McLellan. "But I think as the competition narrows starting tomorrow, that's going to be a lot harder to do.

"We can't just think we're going to score our way to wins. We've got to check our way to wins."

And of course the crowd noise at the O2 Arena will be dialled up for the semifinal. Edmonton Oilers forward Jordan Eberle said he is looking forward to the game experience.

"When the crowd's going and they're whistling and they're jumping and all that — we enjoy playing in front of it too," Eberle said. "Even walking around the square — people love hockey. They're passionate about it, much like Canada. When you get a matchup like this, it's going to be a lot of fun."

The Czechs may have the crowd support, but Canada remains the team to beat with a perfect record through the first eight games of the tournament.

When asked if that creates added pressure on his team, McLellan said: "When you are from Canada and you put the jersey on, it comes with the territory.

"Yeah, there's pressure. But there's a lot of those players that have played either in this type of event, Olympics, Stanley Cup finals - you name it, they've been involved with it. The pressure exists the minute you accept the responsibility of putting the jersey on. It's nothing that anybody hasn't dealt with."

By Carol Schram, The Canadian Press