HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- The United States lost to Finland 3-2 on Sunday in the bronze medal game at the World Junior hockey championship.

Russia rallied to beat Canada 3-2 to win the gold medal for the second straight year. Finland has its second consecutive third-place medal.

"It's a big thing in Finland because we've never won a medal before in Canada,'' Finland captain Tuomo Ruutu said.

Russia's Yuri Trubachev scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period to lift Russia. Andrei Taratukhin and Igor Grigorenko also scored for the champions and Alexander Perezhogin had two assists.

Canada squandered a 2-1 lead.

Dallas Stars' draft pick Jussi Jokinen, Los Angeles Kings selection Henrik Juntenen and defenseman Joni Pitkanen, the fourth choice in last year's draft by Philadelphia, scored for Finland.

Ryan Suter, nephew of former NHL player Gary Suter, and forward Dustin Brown scored for the United States.

Finland led 3-0 until the Americans scored twice within three minutes late in the third period.

"We had to give the audience something,'' Finland forward Sean Bergenheim said. "But my heart rate was 200 in the last two minutes.''

The United States pulled goalie Rob Goepfert, but couldn't score the tying goal.

"I thought we played well for two periods,'' Brown said. "To win a game here you have to play for three.''

St. Louis Blues draft pick Tuomas Nissinen started in goal for Finland instead of Kari Lehtonen, who played every previous game of the tournament. Nissinen stopped 29 shots.

The Americans gave James Howard his first start since an opening loss to Russia. He was replaced him by Goephert after the first period in which Finland built a 2-0 lead on 10 shots. Goephert stopped 10 of 11 shots.

Finland last won a world junior gold medal in 1998. The Americans' best result at this tournament was silver in 1997.