Canada beats USA 4-3 in shootout at Worlds

After Ty Conklin stood on his head for Team USA thoughout three periods and overtime, he was beaten twice in the shootout as Canada prevailed 4-3 over the Americans on Friday in their IIHF World Championship qualification game in Kosice, Slovakia. Jordan Eberle, Canada's first shooter, was credited with the game-winner.

John Tavares and Jason Spezza briefly gave Canada a 3-2 lead over Team USA in the third period before Derek Stepan tied it for the Americans. The Canadians outshot the U.S. squad 47-19 before the five-minute overtime.

"I thought we had a good second period, just a couple of bad bounces," Rick Nash, who also scored for Canada in the shootout, told the IIHF website. "But we had a great third and scored a couple of goals. But we have to learn how to finish games and not let those goals in in the last 10 minutes."

Mike Komisarek opened the scoring in the second period for the U.S., beating Canada goalie and Toronto Maple Leafs teammate James Reimer with a point shot. Defenseman Brent Burns drew Canada even a minute later, beating Conklin, who got the start for the U.S. over Al Montoya.

Jack Johnson then put the U.S. ahead 2-1 heading into the third.

Canada won Group B in the preliminary round and is undefeated so far in the tournament, while the U.S. finished second in Group C, losing to Sweden after opening with a pair of victories.

Czech Republic 3, Slovakia 2

Martin Havlat finished with a goal and an assist and Patrik Elias set up all three goals for the Czech Republic, which defeated the host nation in Bratislava and created a bind for the host nation in the process.

Ladislav Nagy and Tomas Surovy scored goals and Jaroslav Halak turned aside 34 shots for Slovakia, which now must win its next two games against Finland and Denmark and also have Finland not gain any points in its final game against Russia in order to advance to the quarterfinals.

"That's all that matters now -- we'll have to win those two games. Let's see what happens,"  defenseman Milan Jurcina told the IIHF website.

Marek Zidlicky deflected an Elias shot in the first period to give the Czech Republic a 1-0 lead. Nagy got the goal back for Slovakia in the second, but Elias then assisted on goals by Havlat and Milan Michalek in the third to put the Czechs, who have secured a quarterfinal berth, in control.

"I think we've played pretty well in the four games we've played so far," Havlat said. "[Elias and Michalek] are both great players and they're both different. That's very important for our line. They both are having great tournaments so far. The whole team is playing very well. That's the most important thing -- battling hard to the last second."

Finland 5, Germany 4

Mikko Koivu scored twice in the shootout as Finland won in Bratislava to hand Germany its first loss of the tournament.

According to IIHF rules, teams may repeat shooters after three rounds of the penalty-shot tiebreaker. Koivu scored in the second and fourth round for Finland. Mikael Granlund was also successful. Reimer and Michael Wolf answered for Germany, but Reimer missed on his second attempt.

"I'm very happy with the win, having been down by two goals in the second period," Finland coach Jukka Jalonen told the IIHF website. "It was, mentally, a tough situation. Fortunately, we recovered and were tough enough to win the game in the shootout."

Tuomo Ruutu scored twice in regulation for Finland, while Janne Pesonen and Jarkko Immonen also had goals.

Andre Rankel, Felix Schütz, Kai Hospelt and Patrick Reimer scored in regulation for Germany, which hasn't beaten Finland at the World Championship since they hosted in 1993 and recorded a 3-1 win in Dortmund.

Sweden 4, France 0

Viktor Fasth stopped all 29 shots he faced and Sweden moved into a tie with Canada in Group F by blanking France in Kosice.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Staffan Kronwall each had a goal and an assist for undefeated Sweden, which also got goals from Robert Nilsson and Patrik Berglund.

"You always want to start well," forward Loui Eriksson told the IIHF website, "and I think we did that today with three goals in the first period. It was a good game for us."