WRAPUP 1-Ice hockey-Swedes march on while Germany upset Czechs

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MYTISHCHI, Russia, Defending champions Sweden continued their march towards another title, rallying past Denmark 5-2 at the ice hockey world championship on Thursday, while Germany upset the Czech Republic 2-0.

Finland and the United States also made winning starts to the qualifying round but it was the unbeaten Swedes (4-0), who continue to set the pace having out-scored the opposition 26-5 in four games.

The Czechs, world champions in 2005 and silver medallists in Riga last year, fell from the ranks of the undefeated in spectacular style as Dimitri Kotschnew stopped 21 shots to give Germany the shock victory.

In other games, Finland needed two late goals to edge Switzerland 2-0 while the United States kept their medal hopes on track with a 4-2 win over Slovakia.

The only country to win Olympic and world titles in the same year, Sweden spotted Denmark a 2-0 first-period lead then stormed back with five unanswered goals to remain unbeaten and move top of the Group E standings.

With the crowd buzzing, Sweden quickly restored order, pounding three powerplay goals from Kenny Jonsson, Johan Akerman and Johan Davidsson past Danish netminder Michael Madsen to pull ahead 3-2 after two periods.

Magnus Johansson and Davidsson with his second of the night added insurance tallies in the third.

The Czechs entered the qualifying round with a perfect 3-0 record while Germany needed a victory over Norway in their final preliminary contest just to advance and avoid dropping down into the relegation battle.

NOT INTIMIDATED

But the Germans would not be intimidated by the 1998 Olympic champions, recording their first win over the Czechs since the last time the worlds were staged in Moscow in 1986.

A well organised German defence kept the high-powered Czech attack at bay, limiting the six-time world champions to a handful of good scoring chances which Kotschnew clinically turned aside.

Michael Hackert's powerplay goal with 10 seconds to play in the opening period stood up as the game winner with Michael Wolf adding an insurance marker with a blast from the left faceoff circle with just over a minute remaining in regulation.

"You hope to win every game, it always starts 0-0, it doesn't matter whether it is the Czechs or Finland or Belarus," Kotschnew told reporters. "After the first goal we were kind of fired up and played a great game."

Tuomo Ruutu converted a powerplay chance with less than nine minutes to play in regulation to break open a scoreless draw and Ville Peltonen added a second into an empty net as Finland blanked the Swiss to remain in the hunt for gold.

Kari Lehtonen was not overworked in the Finnish net, facing just 18 shots as Switzerland were shutout for the second time in 24 hours.

The United States and Slovakia entered their second-round clash with identical 2-1 records but the Slovaks could not keep pace with the well-rested Americans, who are bidding to end a 47-year world championship gold medal drought.

Back on the ice just 16 hours after a bruising 5-4 loss to Canada, the Slovaks got the game off to an energetic start as they dominated the opening period, blasting 18 shots at Carolina Hurricanes' netminder John Grahame but they still trailed 2-1 entering first break.

Hurricanes' Andrew Hutchinson hammered a drop pass from Andrew Alberts to open the scoring and St. Louis Blues' David Backes added a short-handed marker to push the United States to an early 2-0 lead.

Zdeno Chara put Slovakia on the score sheet before the end of the period but the Americans hit back in the second with goals from Boston Bruins team mates Phil Kessel and Brandon Bochenski to seize control 4-1.

Keywords: ICE HOCKEY WORLD/

[Reuters/Finance.cz]