UPDATE 1-Ice hockey-Holders Sweden beat Slovakia to reach semis

...

By Steve Keating

Tony Martensson got a hat-trick and Jonathan Hedstrom scored twice to help power holders Sweden to a 7-4 win over Slovakia and into the semi-finals of the ice hockey world championship on Wednesday.

The Olympic champions join Russia in the final four, the hosts advancing earlier with 4-0 shutout win over the Czech Republic.

Canada will faceoff against Switzerland and the United States will take on Finland on Thursday to decide the two remaining semi-final berths.

Trailing 2-1 after the opening period, the Swedes' attack came to life in the second with Hedstrom notching his second and third of the tournament and Martensson getting his first of the game to put the holders 4-2 up.

"We started a little nervous the first 10 minutes but after that I thought we got things going and played pretty well for the rest of the game," Sweden coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson told reporters.

"I felt we controlled the last part of the first period and felt we had to continue to play the same way.

"We didn't change anything, we finally relaxed and scored a couple of goals."

After Minnesota Wild's Branko Radivojevic scored early in the third to trim the deficit to 4-3, Martensson quickly restored Sweden's two-goal cushion, taking control of the puck near centre ice then stick handling his way through the Slovakia defence and beating Karol Krizan.

Sweden's Magnus Johansson and Slovakia's Roman Kukumberg then traded goals before Martensson completed the hat-trick, scoring into an empty net.

"I got a breakaway and tried to go to the backhand and he went with me and I lifted it high," said Martensson after his first international hat-trick. "But the second period was the key to the game.

"We had a lot of scoring chances and played really well."

Atlanta Thrashers' Marian Hossa and Richard Kapus both found the back of the net in the opening period for Slovakia while Fredrik Warg opened Sweden's account.

Keywords: ICE HOCKEY WORLD/SWEDEN

[MOSCOW/Reuters/Finance.cz]