Swedes Hold Off Canadians To Take World Cup Opener

Tommy Salo made 32 saves, and Sweden beat Canada 3-2 to take a 1-0 lead Sunday in the best-of-three gold-medal round at the World Hockey Championships. Game 2 is Tuesday.

“Defensively, we played a perfect game,” said Swedish coach Kent Forsberg.

Canada and Sweden traded power-play goals in the opening period. First, Mark Recchi banged a blue-line slapshot into the lower right side of the net of partly screened Salo at 10:54.

Just 1:23 later, Sweden tied the game when Jonas Hoglund picked up a redound from the pads of Canadian goalie Sean Burke, and fired an angled shot from the right face-off spot into the opposite side of the net.

Trailing 3-1 with a minute remaining, the Canadians pulled Burke for an extra attacker. The gamble paid off just two seconds later when Anson Carter deflected in a long-range shot between Salo’s pads from the crease. Canada continued playing without Burke, but failed to score in the frantic last seconds of the match.