The United States upset three-time defending Olympic champions Canada 5-3 on Thursday, while Sweden rocked Switzerland 9-3 in the men's curling semifinals at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

The Americans and Canadians played three blank ends in a long, defensive match at Gangneung Curling Centre before the United States took the lead to deny its northern neighbor the chance at another gold.

After the U.S. tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth end, neither team could score in the sixth or seventh. But the eighth was when the Americans finally broke the match open on a fatal error by Canadian skip Kevin Koe who missed a draw inside his opponents' two scoring stones.

The Canadians scored once more in the ninth end, but the Americans had the last rock of the match and made it count, with skip John Shuster's take-out sending his squad through to the final.

In the other match, Sweden took an early two-point lead in the first end against Switzerland and made it a five-point gap after the fourth when skip Niklas Edin's last-stone take-out left four in the house. Switzerland added one point in the fifth end but the Swedes took three more over the next two ends.

Skip Benoit Schwarz's take-out in the eighth end put one more on the board for the Swiss, but facing a six-point deficit, he conceded.

Switzerland, who earlier in the day beat Great Britain in a tiebreaker to earn the fourth spot, will face Canada for the bronze medal on Friday, while the United States take on Sweden for the gold on Saturday.

After a crushing 10-4 loss to South Korea in their final match on Wednesday, Japan finished the round robin phase in eighth and did not advance to the semifinals.