HERNING, Denmark (AP) — Canada’s bid for a third title in four years suffered another blow at the ice hockey world championship when it lost to Finland 5-1 on Saturday.
Also, Russia rebounded from a defeat to the Czech Republic by topping Switzerland 4-3.
Defending champion Sweden prevailed over Slovakia 4-3 in overtime for its fifth straight win.
Denmark kept alive its dream of advancing to the quarterfinals by beating South Korea 3-1, and Latvia remained in contention by downing Olympic runner-up Germany 3-1.
In a game between winless teams, Austria shut out Belarus 4-0 to survive in the top division. Belarus will be relegated.
Mikko Rantanen led Finland with two goals as Canada was beaten for the second time at the championship.
“The special teams played a good PK (penalty kill) and obviously we’ve got a couple of goals from the power play,” Finland captain Mikael Granlund said. “And our goalie played a great game.”
Rantanen gave Finland the first lead when his angled shot was deflected by the stick of Brayden Schenn. Jean-Gabriel Pageau answered that one with a slap shot to tie.
Janne Pesonen restored a goal advantage for Finland on a power play and Rantanen put Finland in control with another power play goal with a backhand.
Canada goaltender Curtis McElhinney was pulled after allowing three goals on nine shots with 3:25 remaining in the opening period.
Eeli Tolvanen and Teuvo Teravainen added insurance goals in the final period.
Finland goaltender Harri Sateri made 30 saves.
“They worked hard and closed a lot of gaps for us,” Canada forward Bo Horvat said. “Their power play was good tonight. The goaltender was sensational.
“We’re not disappointed, there’s lot of hockey left in the tournament. We’re expecting to come hard next game.”
Kirill Kaprizov, Evgenii Dadonov, Nikita Nesterov and Mikhail Grigorenko scored for Russia. For Switzerland, Ramon Untersander, Sven Andrighetto and Gaetan Haas scored.
Mika Zibanejad scored the winner for Sweden on a power play with 41 seconds remaining.
Trailing 3-1, Marek Daloga and Ladislav Nagy scored for Slovakia to force overtime.
Veteran Frans Nielsen, Jesper Jensen and Nichlas Hardt scored for host Denmark, setting off raucous celebrations by the home fans in Jyske Bank Boxen arena.
“It’s gonna be a hard fight out there on Tuesday,” Nielsen said, referring to playing Latvia in the last group game.
Kisung Kim scored his fourth goal in six matches but South Korea remained pointless with a game left.
Sweden leads Group A in Copenhagen with 14 points, leading Russia by one point. Switzerland and the Czech republic have nine, one more than Slovakia. Austria has four.
Finland jumped to second in Group B in Herning with 12 points, one behind the United States. Denmark is another point back in third and Canada remains on 10 in fourth followed by Latvia with nine.
The first four teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals.
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