Canada defeated China 3-1 in a shoot out after the regulation time saw both teams tied at 3-3.
The win gives Canada a place in the semis where they will play Italy on Friday.
As for China, they will be rueing the fact that they let go of the lead three times in the match to lose in the shootout.
Canada finished as Pool A runner up while China were third in Pool B.
Hence they squared off for a place in the last four and it ended up with a Canada win.
“ It was a tough win and credit to the players who hung in there Abd fought back each time we were down,” said man of the match Mark Pearson.
“ China are a tough team to crack defensively and they gave us a good fight.
“ We look forward to playing Italy in the semis as they have some truly creative players and a very interesting penalty corner battery.”
Both teams are ranked higher then the two teams who made a direct entry to the semis, with Italy at 32 , Austria at 19 while Canada and China were at 10 and 14 respectively.
Playing under hot and humid conditions, both teams started off cautiously and the tempo was rather slow for a knockout match.
Du Talake made good their first penalty corner in the 4th minute to give China an early lead.
Canada got a break early in in the second quarter as the rebound fell kindly to Oliver Schofield to score in the16th minute to make it all square at 1-1.
China took a 2-1 lead just seconds before the end of the second quarter with Tu Yuan Lin converting a penalty corner.
Iain Smythe capitalised on a defensive error by a Chinese defender to slot the ball on the turn in the 47th minute to put the teams all square.
An uncharacteristic mistake by Canada keeper Andrew Charter who failed to clear a deflection cleanly and Su Lixing pounced to put China 3-2 ahead in the 50th minute.
Canada threw caution into the wind and went all out to get the equaliser.
And a brilliant turn and finish by Sukhi Panesar who snap shot from the too of the semi circle caught China keeper wrong footed in the 51st minute to make it 3-3.
Pearson scores a goal seconds from time but was ruled as back stick by the umpire much to the dismay of the North American side.
