Johnson on target as USA beat Canada at ice hockey worlds

The United States, bidding for their first world title since 1960, snatched a hard-fought 5-4 overtime win against Canada at the world ice hockey championships here on Saturday. US skipper Jack Johnson was the hero scoring the sudden-death winner -- his second powerplay goal of the match -- to secure his side's leading position in their preliminary group standings. Winnipeg Jets' striker Jim Slater got the US off to a flying start just 1:10 into the match with a wristed puck home through the traffic. Canada replied positively striking back twice through New York Islanders' forward John Tavares and Carolina Hurricanes' Jeff Skinner for a 2-1 lead before Johnson levelled at 2-2 at 33:54. In the third period the opponents traded goals twice again as Patrick Dwyer and Nate Thompson scored for Americans, while Evander Kane and Duncan Keith were on target for Canada. The United States, who started the overtime on powerplay after Tavares was sinbinned for time wasting, needed just 1:47 to score the winning goal through Johnson, who beat Canada's goalie Cam Ward with a mid-range wrist shot. "Canada is always a formidable opponent," said US team manager Scott Gordon. "Look at their roster, there are few guys that scored less than 20 goals in the (regular NHL) season. "The key for us was that we played a complete game in all three zones. And our powerplay was huge tonight." Co-hosts Sweden, meanwhile, maintained their perfect record, earning their second win of the tournament by beating the Czech Republic 4-1 at the ice of Globen arena. Sweden got an early lead through Detroit Red Wings forward Johan Franzen, who swept home a rebound past Czech goalie Jakub Stepanek after 2:42. Defender Niklas Kronwall added his goal just 50sec into the second, beating Stepanek with a sharp-angled shot to lift Sweden 2-0 up. Jakub Petruzalek reduced arrears 3:44 into the third period, sweeping the puck in after Sweden team goalie Viktor Fasth schoolboy's mistake, but Joel Lundqvist dashed Czech hopes with his insurance goal at 50:24. Czech coach Aloiz Hadamczik subtituted Stepanek for the sixth field player in the late stages but only to allow Niklas Persson to finalise the scoring with his empty-netter with 1:56 to go. In the early match at Stockholm, Russia battled back from a goal down to get off to a winning start with a 5-2 success over Latvia. Forward Miks Indrasis lifted Latvia 1-0 at 11:32 beating Russian goaltender Semyon Varlamov with a slap shot from just inside the blue line. Russia poured in attack but squandered a hatful of chances before skipper Ilya Nikulin levelled with his powerplay goal at 33:45. This season's NHL scoring champion Yevgeni Malkin, who is playing with Pittsburgh Penguins, added a double to give Russia a comfortable 3-1 lead. In the remaining time Alexander Popov and Yevgeni Kuznetsov netted one apiece for Russia, while Martins Cipulis recorded his late consolation for Latvia. "It's our first game and we all were slightly shaky early in the match," said Malkin. "Luckily we managed to come back after losing the first period. "I hope this win will add us self confidence in the upcoming matches." Earlier in Helsinki, Switzerland came away 5-1 winners against Kazakhstan at the ice of Hartwall arena. Veterans Ivo Rutheman, 35, and skipper Mark Streit, 34, both collected a double and an assist, while goaltender Reto Berra produced 19 saves. After this world championships nine top-ranked teams will automatically qualify for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.