Adam Gaudette delivered a stellar performance to give the United States a 3-2 overtime win, which handed Sweden their first loss at the World Hockey Championship on Saturday in Tampere.
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The Ottawa Senators forward was a part of all three of his country’s goals and sealed the win by accepting T.J. Tynan’s overtime 2-on-1 surrender.
Gaudette also tied the game 1-1 in the first period, before being complicit in the success of Nate Schmidt at the very end of the second period.
The Swedes, undefeated so far in the preliminary round, remain in second place in Group B, behind Finland. They responded to the Americans with nets from Rasmus Dahlin and Carl Grundstrom.
The Finns, the local favourites, played their sixth game on the same day and shut out the Austrians 3-0.
Valtteri Filppula, Mikael Granlund and Toni Rajala threaded the needle, while goalkeeper Jussi Olkinuora blocked all 19 shots he faced. His vis-à-vis, David Madlener, did well in front of the Austrian net with 36 saves.
Finland have 16 points, four more than the Swedes. The latter, however, have a game in hand.
A victory while waiting for Canada
In Helsinki, Denmark easily beat France 3-0 thanks to 19 saves from goalkeeper Sebastian Dahm.
Fourth in Group A, the Danes will be Canada’s next opponents on Monday.
Peter Regin and Joachim Blichfield cheated the vigilance of Henri-Corentin Buysse, who faced 29 shots. Julian Jakobsen completed the scoring in an empty net.
In other matches on Saturday, the Czech Republic beat Norway 4-1, and the Slovaks overcame the Italians 3-1.
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