Sweden dump Americans

The beginning of the match was frantic as both teams looked to take hold early.

The Swedes opened the scoring when, in the seventh minute, Kenny Jonsson fired a shot on goal and Ottawa Senators forward Daniel Alfredsson jumped on the rebound. Alfredsson lifted the backhand over a sprawling Paul DiPietro and the Swedes were off.

The US climbed back into the game three minutes before the end of the first period when the ageless Mike Modano took a pass from Craig Conroy at the edge of the right face-off circle and whipped a shot to the upper right-hand corner that Sweden goalie Henrik Lundqvist could only wave at with his glove.

The Swedish breakthrough came in the 43rd minute less than a minute after American defenseman Jordan Leopold took a penalty for holding. Mikael Samuelsson was in the right place after a DiPietro kick save bounced to his backhand side. For the second time on the afternoon an unmarked Swede around the net scored.

America had two great chances to pull ahead in the second period when successive penalties on Sweden saw the US go two men up. In the 25th minute Ronnie Sundin was called for tripping and Nicklas Lidstrom for hooking. The US poured on the pressure but failed to put the puck in the net thanks to more Lundqvist heroics.

The Americans found themselves up two men again in the 35th minute when Mika Hannula and Daniel Sedin were both sent to the box. Again the US set up well on special teams but failed to make the difference leaving the door open for Samuelsson to snatch the winner shortly after the second intermission.

In the final frame the US offense continued to struggle shooting seven times on net, all of which were turned away by an unyielding Lundqvist. The Swedish goaltender had 24 saves in total.

After drawing their first match to Latvia, beating Kazakhstan, and loosing two on the trot to Slovakia and Sweden the Americans' chances of qualification are looking slim.

WOMEN'S FINAL: Sweden ready to go for it