Sweden kept their perfect all-time record against Germany intact tonight by winning by a 4-2 count. It was the team’s 22nd consecutive win against the Germans in U20 play without a defeat. The cumulative goals in the all-time series is a whopping 141-28.

The win gives Sweden second place in Group B and a quarter-finals date with Latvia on Wednesday. The loss leaves Germany in third, and they’ll now take on Finland. The other matchups include Canada-Switzerland and United States-Czechia.

"It's going to be fun playing the quarter-finals against Latvia," offered captain Emil Andrae. "It's going to be a hard game, tough game. But I think if we play the right way, we're going to win. Hopefully now when we go into the quarter-finals, that will be our peak point and we'll play our best."

"We're looking forward to the quarter-final against Finland," said German forward Bennet Rossmy. "I think there are a lot of things we can do better. Small things, getting pucks out, winning the battles. But I think we can build on that."

Daniel Ljungman scored twice for the victors and Calle Clang stopped 20 of 22 shots. Germany used two goalies who faced 30 shots, including five in the third period by Niklas Lunemann, who was making his debut with the national team in relief of Nikita Quapp.

"They made it 1-0, but then we bounced back right after," said Sweden's Oskar Olausson. "It was a good game. We just tried to outwork the other team and get pucks to the net."

"I think we had a good start," added Rossmy, who opened the scoring for Germany. "Then we got on the PK, and it was tough. They played it really well and scored on it. And then they just got the momentum and got two more goals. It's tough to come back against a team like this."

The Germans got off to a good start with a fortuitous goal just four minutes it. Rossmy drove down the right side and cut around his man, Anton Olsson, before letting go an easy shot along the ice that Clang flubbed.

Just 82 seconds later, though, Sweden tied the score on a power play with Danjo Leonhardt in the box for tripping. Olausson scored his first goal of the tournament with a shot over Quapp’s glove from the top of the circle.

Sweden went ahead 2-1 at 12:29 on a great hand-eye coordination play by Ljungman. Olsson took the original shot, but Quapp popped the puck in the air while making the save. Ljungman batted it in with expert precision, and without a high stick, as video review confirmed.

Just a minute and a half later the Swedes opened a two-goal lead. Captain Emil Andrae sprang forward Oskar Magnusson in alone with a perfectly-angled pass of the sideboards. Magnusson snapped a shot over the glove of Quapp to give Sweden command of the game. It was the first of the tournament for Magnusson, who was drafted 211th overall by Washington two years ago.

The second period was vintage Sweden hockey. The clock ticked off second by second, and a whole lot of nothing happened. The Swedes were pretty much flawless on defence but didn’t generate many great chances of their own. Germany had one small flurry midway through, but a Maciej Rutkowski chance was stopped by Clang and Sweden continued to lead, 3-1.

German coach Tobias Abstreiter inserted backup Lunemann into the game to start the third. He had been the backup last December but not seeing any game action before the tournament was shut down.

Lunemann was welcomed to the big time in the worst way, as Sweden connected on a power play just 5:46 into his first game. Ljungman wired a one-timer from the middle of the slot before Lunemann knew what had happened, and the Swedes increased their lead to 4-1.

Germany finished the scoring with 7.1 seconds remaining on a whacky goal. Luca Munzenberger wristed a shot towards the goal that bounced off a body in front and floated high over everyone and into the net. Another video was required, but it was way too little, too late for Germany.