Sweden secured first place in Group A after a hard-fought victory over Czechia. The 2-0 verdict, secured with a goal during a five-on-three power play, keeps Sweden perfect after three games. Despite today’s loss, the Czechs can still take second place in the group with victory over Canada on Tuesday.

Through two periods of this game, Sweden had the better of the play but struggled to convert its possession into good looks at Michael Hrabal in the Czech net. Much of that was due to solid defence from Czechia, but after the opening day blow-out against Canada, the Swedes have looked less than clinical. Against Slovakia, failure to turn territorial advantage into second-period goals saw the Tre Kronor dragged into a battle late in the third. And today, against Czechia, 31 shots on goal yielded a late power play goal and an empty-netter.

"As a team we’re trying to have a lot of traffic but obviously they had a great goalie today," said Tom Willander, scorer of the winning goal. "But even when we had traffic and we did what we wanted to, the puck didn’t really bounce in. That’s just part of the game."

The Czechs did not help their cause with a double penalty in the 48th minute. Jakub Dvorak’s tripping penalty was trouble enough, but when combined with a delay of game minor it handed Sweden a full two minutes with a two-man advantage. Under that pressure, the defence finally cracked: Willander capitalized on the extra space between the hash marks to snipe a go-ahead goal that was greeted with jubilation and relief in equal measure.

"It was amazing, it felt great," smiled Willander. "It was quite late in the game and we had trouble scoring so it felt very, very nice when we eventually got the puck in."

The job wasn’t quite done for Sweden. A Czech power play saw Eduard Sale test goalie Noah Erliden and there was more pressure to absorb in the closing minutes. But when Otto Stenberg fired into an empty net, the deal was sealed. The defending champion also recorded its first shut-out against the Czechs in this competition since 2009, with Erliden making 15 saves.

That left the Czechs frustrated. "We're not happy with the way we lost," said defender Adam Jiricek. "That five-on-three kill with 10 minutes left, that's hard to take.

"But I think we played a hard game. We didn't give them much. We know how Sweden plays, we came out with a game plan. We all stuck together, our goalie played good, and in the end it was just that five-on-three that decided the game." 

Earlier in the game, clear-cut chances were hard to come by. Although Sweden was up 21-9 on shots through 40 minutes, Hrabal dealt comfortably with most of what came his way. There were some moments of danger, notably when the Omaha Lancers goalie lost track of the puck and Otto Stenberg stole away to attempt a goal on the wraparound. Hrabal recovered in time to make the save, and the Czechs cleared the subsequent rebound.

Although Czechia rarely posed a big offensive threat, the team in red came close to breaking the deadlock late in the second period. Adam Zidlicky broke clear of the Swedish defence for a one-on-one with Erliden. However, the goalie came up big to keep the game deadlocked.

At the start of the third, too, the Czechs showed signs of hurting Sweden. A fantastic, slaloming rush from Adam Jiricek sliced through the Swedish defence. He dished off the puck for the on-rushing Jakub Stancl, but he was denied a power play goal by a combination of Erliden’s skate and the near post.

That chance looked even bigger moments later when Sweden got its game-breaking goal, leaving the Czechs to reflect on what might have been.