Sweden scored four goals in a wild second period to race away to a 6-3 win over the United States tonight at Grand Casino Arena. 

The win sets up a quarter-finals showdown with Latvia, while the Americans finish in second place and await their QF opponents after the result of the late Canada-Finland game at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

This marked only the fifth time these teams had played on New Year’s Eve, the U.S. now holding a 3-2 advantage.

Eddie Genborg scored twice for Sweden while teammate Jack Berglund added three assists.

"We knew it would be hard game," said Swedish forward Milton Gastrin. "They were better at the start, but we kept it together and took over a bit in the second and scored some goals. We played like a team the whole way, and I think we did that better than they did, which is probably why we won."
 

"They're a pretty good team and we didn't play our best," offered American defender Chase Reid. "We'll see them again, and we'll get them back. I feel like we can play the same way, but we didn't bring our best game tonight. We took a lot of undisciplined penalties that we didn't need to take, but it's a learning lesson and we'll come back stronger."

The game was played at a high speed and intensity right from the drop of the puck. The Swedes had a tremendous first shift and could well have scored, but the Americans weathered the storm and had the better of play for much of the period.

But the only goal of this penalty-free 20 minutes came from Sweden, thanks to some good luck at the U.S.’s expense. Working the puck down low, Casper Juustovaara created a mini-two-on-one near the crease with Gastrin. But when Juustovaara made the pass across, the puck skipped off the skate of Logan Hensler and past a surprised Brady Knowling, who was making his Team USA debut.

That wasn’t even the best scoring chance of the period, though. That belonged to American Ryker Lee. He hounded Felix Carell who came out from behind his net a little too casually. Carell fell, and Lee was right there to claim the puck. He made several quick dekes, and although he got Love Harenstam to go down, Lee couldn’t get the puck in the air, and the chance went for naught.

A crazy second period started with a power-play goal from Sweden with the first 5-on-4 of the night. Liam Danielsson fed Genborg for the back-door shot that hit the centre of the net and spun the netcam around at 3:01.

Three minutes later, the Swedes increased their lead to 3-0 when Lucas Pettersson sped down the right wing and fired a shot to the far side, beating Knowling cleanly. Bu the hosts got one back less than three minutes later off a wild sequence that finished with Reid snapping a shot in from the slot.

Pettersson scored again while his team was short-handed, goalie Harenstam being assessed a penalty for diving not long after he had drawn a goalie interference penalty.

"I think when we scored the fourth goal we felt like we had a bit of breathing room and could play with the puck a bit more. It was really tight," Gastrin added.

Sweden pulled away, 5-1, on another power play, Genborg getting his second of the night after a perfect feed through the blue ice from Viggo Bjorck.

The U.S. got a bit of life with a final goal at 16:44, Will Zellers getting to a loose puck and nudging it over the goal line. And they got more life early in the third on another power play. L.J. Mooney fired a hard pass to the slot, and Teddy Stiga redirected it past Harenstam at 2:30 to make it 5-3.

No sooner had they played their way back, however, than they ran into penalty trouble, giving the Swedes a 5-on-3 for 1:44. Sweden connected with one second left on the first penalty, Jack Berglund making a clever pass to Ivar Stenberg right in the crease for the tap-in and a 6-3 lead.