  Jordan Eberle (left) celebrates his game-tying goal with P.K. Subban against Russia on Saturday. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson)
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P.K. Subban could come up with only one explanation how Team Canada made it to tonight's world junior gold-medal game against Sweden without playing its best hockey.
Divine intervention.
"I listened to (Russia captain) Nikita Filatov -- a lot of guys on our team respect him, he's a great player -- and he said that God was on our side, and I think our team has truly been blessed so far," said Subban. "We've had a lot of opportunity and a lot of bounces. We've worked extremely hard, but we've also been blessed."
Canada rallied from a three-goal deficit to defeat the U.S. on New Year's Eve and scored with 5.4 seconds left to send the game to overtime and eventually won in a shootout against Russia Saturday night.
"We're still not playing with our head, we're certainly playing with our heart," said coach Pat Quinn. "Two nights we got out by the skin of our teeth, and that's hard to do if you're Bob Clarke."
They'll have to play smarter tonight against Sweden. Although it wouldn't hurt to keep praying.
"I was told by scouts and ex-players that this is the best group of kids they've had since '81 or way back when those oldtimers playing in the NHL now were young guys," said Quinn. "They've proved it.
"(The Swedes) had hardly any trouble going through the tournament to this point. They handled a very good Russian team what appeared to be quite easily, so we know they're a very skillful group and we expect we'll have to find ways to improve our game to match their skill level."
Sweden will have the added motivation of revenge after losing to Canada 3-2 in overtime in last year's final.
"Both of us want that gold medal. We're on home ice and obviously they'd like to steal it from us," said John Tavares.
"They have guys who they have from last year who know what it's like to lose that game so they'll be motivated, but we're just as motivated to win that gold. It's going to be a great game."
REMAIN PHYSICAL
Penalties have hurt Canada in the tournament, but Quinn wants his team -- especially the checking line of Patrice Cormier, Stefan Della Rovere and Evander Kane -- to keep playing physical.
"Early in the game, I want contact," he said. "We know Canadian teams as being physical and finishing checks and dumping it and knocking people of the puck. We can score goals and we've got a couple of kids who can hit and I want those kids to hit."
Canada will also need to get its power play back on track. After scoring at a 60% rate in the first four games, it was just 1-for-9 against Russia.
"That happens, you're not going to play perfect hockey the whole tournament, but we're going to try to save our best game for (tonight)," said Subban.
