Patrik Berglund scored twice and Sweden struck for three goals in the second period to claim a 6-2 win over the United States on Wednesday at the 2011 IIHF World Championship in Kosice, Slovakia, to win Group C.
Mattias Sjogren had a goal and two assists, Marcus Kruger, Jimmie Ericsson and David Petrasek also scored and Viktor Fasth stopped 30 shots for Sweden, which moves into Group F for the Qualification Round and will face France on Friday.
Cam Fowler and Blake Wheeler had goals for the U.S., which will face Canada on Friday.
"They did a good job of coming at us with a lot of speed, and they're patient at re-grouping," U.S. defenseman Jack Johnson told the IIHF website. "It's tough to play against, but I thought that there were times we took it to them. We gave up six goals -- you're not going to win a lot of games doing that."
Berglund and Fowler traded goals 72 seconds apart late in the first period before Sweden took control of the game in the second. It started with a turnover by U.S. goalie Al Montoya, who played a puck from behind his net directly to Mattias Tedenby. He pushed it out in front, where Kruger scored into an open net.
Sjogren scored midway through the period off a drop pass from Ericsson and Berglund struck again to make it 4-1 with 4:44 left in the second, snapping home a loose puck that Montoya was unable to control.
"I think we're getting better," Fasth offered. "We started badly by losing to Norway, but we didn't play as well as we can. Last game and now these were huge steps, so hopefully we can keep it going."
Czech Republic 2, Finland 1
Milan Michalek and Jaromir Jagr scored and Ondrej Pavelec stopped 31 shots as the Czech Republic edged Finland in Bratislava, setting up a much-anticipated rivalry game on Friday against host Slovakia.
"They knew the importance of the game. They wanted to win the game as badly as we did but we played the way we wanted to and our goalie played awesome," Czech forward Martin Havlat told the IIHF website.
Michalek got the scoring started on a Czech power play in the second period, one-timing a feed from Marek Zidlicky. Jagr doubled their advantage by scoring early in the third, just after Finland had finished killing off another penalty.
Pavelec was just 20 seconds away from a shutout when Anssi Salmela beat him after Finland had pulled its goaltender, but they couldn't find the equalizer.
Denmark 3, Latvia 2
Mads Christensen scored in a shootout to lead Denmark to victory in Bratislava, earning them a Qualification Round berth and relegating Latvia to the Relegation Round for the first time since 2007.
Christensen also had both of Denmark's regulation goals, while Martins Cipulis and Jekabs Redlihs answered for Latvia.
Norway 5, Austria 0
Anders Bastiansen scored a goal and set up three others as Norway cruised to a win in Kosice and wrapped up its spot in the Qualification Round.
Eerikki Koivu, Mathis Olimb, Jonas Holos and Lars Erik Spets also tallied for Norway.
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