Russia has advanced to the finals of the World Hockey Championships in Switzerland.

The Russians will be looking for back-to-back titles for the first time since they did it as the Soviet Union in 1989 and 1990.

The Russians put pressure on American goalie Robert Esche all game, and it ultimately led to a 3-2 Russian victory with 1:47 to go in overtime.

Dustin Brown scored to give the Americans a 1-0 lead at 3:46 of the second period, but could only hold that lead for seven minutes, until Ilya Kovalchuk took a slap shot right off the face-off beating Esche to tie that game at one.

Six minutes later, Alexander Frolov scored on a deflection off the stick of Kovalchuk to give Russia the 2-1 lead.

Kyle Okposo scored at 18:03 of the second period to tie the game up at two after two periods. The teams traded chances in the third period, with three posts hit during the final 20 minutes .

With 1:47 left, Konstantin Gorovikov, off of a deflection from an Alexander Radulov from the faceoff, beat Esche to propel Russia into the championship game for the second-straight year.

The USA will try to win its first medal since winning bronze in 2004, but are dejected that their 76-year gold-medal drought will continue at least for another year.

Russia will play the winner of today's second semifinal game between Canada and Sweden.