The hosts beat Czech Republic 4-3 in a match that had plenty of twists and turns.

Yifeng Shen was awarded a penalty shot early in the first period, but Czech goalkeeper Martin Kudela performed a brilliant save down to his left to keep China’s danger man out.

Nevertheless, Kudela’s save was in vain as Zhidong Wang scored over a minute later.

Unlike the previous three games where China’s opening goal was the precedent for a comfortable victory, Michal Geier shocked the hosts with a goal soon after.

Jintao Tian restored China’s lead in the second period.

Shen eventually got his sixth goal of the tournament to increase China’s advantage to 3-1.

The two-goal deficit did not deter the Czech Republic’s belief they could rescue their tournament as Václav Hečko bagged a goal immediately.

With under six minutes remaining, Miroslav Novotny equalised for Czech Republic.

It seemed the match was drawing closer to an overtime period before Shen passed to Wang and he fired the puck into the goal for what proved the decisive strike.

The Chinese saw out the final 110 seconds to book their place in the next round against the United States.

The other semi-final will see Canada play a Group A rematch against South Korea, who recorded their first win of the tournament via a 4-0 victory against Italy.

Despite the one-sided scoreline, it was not all smooth sailing for the South Koreans.

Dong-Shin Jang put his team in front early before Italy fought back but could not bury any of their chances.

A similar pattern followed in the second period.

Seung-Hwan Jung doubled South Korea’s lead on the 26th minute mark, though this did not dampen Italian spirits as they continued to push for a goal.

However, Jung-Kyung Lee all but sealed Italy’s fate with a goal just 25 seconds into the third period.

In an act of a last drop of hope, Italian goalkeeper Gabriele Araudo pushed forward - leaving an empty goal behind him.

When South Korea stole the puck back, Jang slid it from range to end all doubt as to the winner.

The semi-finals and the classification game between Czech Republic and Italy, which will decide who will finish sixth and fifth respectively, will be held on Friday (March 11).