ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Lucas Pettersson and Eddie Genborg each scored twice and Sweden beat the United States 6-3 on Wednesday night in the world junior hockey championship to complete group play unbeaten.
Casper Juustovaara opened the scoring in the first period on a deflection, and the Swedes led 5-1 in the second period in the Group A finale. Ivar Stenberg scored in the third, and Love Harenstam made 28 saves.
“We knew it would be hard game,” Swedish forward Milton Gastrin said. “They were better at the start, but we kept it together and took over a bit in the second and scored some goals. We played like a team the whole way, and I think we did that better than they did, which is probably why we won.”
In the quarterfinals Friday, Sweden will face Latvia, and the second-place Americans will play Finland, a 7-4 loser to Canada later Wednesday night in the Group B finale in Minneapolis. Canada will play Slovakia, and Czechia will meet Switzerland.
Chase Reid, Will Zellers and Teddy Stiga scored for the United States. Brady Knowling stopped 23 shots in his tournament debut before giving way to Nick Kempf. The Americans lost for the first time in four games in the tournament.
“They’re a pretty good team and we didn’t play our best,” Reid said. “We’ll see them again, and we’ll get them back. I feel like we can play the same way, but we didn’t bring our best game tonight. We took a lot of undisciplined penalties that we didn’t need to take, but it’s a learning lesson and we’ll come back stronger.”
In the late game at the University of Minnesota, Cole Beaudoin had two goals and an assist for Canada.
“You watch this tournament, and you watch this game specifically on New Year’s Eve with your family, so means a lot,” Beaudoin said.
Brady Martin also scored twice, and Zayne Parekh had a goal and two assists. The 19-year-old Parekh has appeared in 12 games for the Calgary Flames.
Earlier, Switzerland beat Slovakia 3-2 to finish third in Group A, and Chechia topped Latvia 4-2 in Group B for its third straight win since an opening loss to Canada.
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