Sweden Beats US in OT, Spoiling Americans’ Comeback

Adam Boqvist scored at 3:51 of overtime to give Sweden a 5-4 victory over the United States on Saturday night in the world junior hockey championship after Ryan Poehling scored twice in the final 37 seconds to force the extra period.

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VICTORIA, British Columbia — Adam Boqvist scored at 3:51 of overtime to give Sweden a 5-4 victory over the United States on Saturday night in the world junior hockey championship after Ryan Poehling scored twice in the final 37 seconds to force the extra period.

Minnesota-Duluth defenseman Mikey Anderson began the U.S. comeback with a power-play goal with 10:26 to go. Poehling assisted on the goal, and tied it with a natural hat trick in the final 6:35. The St. Cloud State sophomore had a power-play goal, then — with goalie Kyle Keyser off for an extra attacker — scored with 37 and 24 seconds to go.

Chills, courtesy of @LilUziPoehlss! #USAWJC 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/uFBE5WZknJ

— USA Hockey (@usahockey) December 30, 2018

Boqvist, a Chicago Blackhawks’ first-round pick who plays defense for the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights, beat Keyser on a give-and-go rush with Lucas Elvenes.

Sweden broke a tie for the Group B lead with its record 47th straight victory in round-robin play. Filip Westerlund, Rickard Hugg, Emil Bemstrom and Erik Brannstrom also scored for Sweden, and Samuel Ersson made 29 saves.

Keyser stopped 28 shots. He plays for the OHL’s Oshawa Generals.

The Americans played without star forward Jack Hughes for the second straight game. He’s has an undisclosed injury.

The teams will complete round-robin play Monday, with the Americans facing Finland, and the Swedes playing Kazakhstan.

In Group A in Vancouver, Morgan Frost had a goal and an assist, Michael DiPietro made 23 saves and Canada beat the Czech Republic 5-1 to improve to 3-0.

Maxime Comtois, Brett Leason, Alexis Lafreniere and MacKenzie Entwistle also scored for defending champion Canada. Ondrej Machala scored for the Czech Republic.

Canada will complete round-robin play Monday against Russia, with the group title likely at stake.

In the early Group A game in Vancouver, Blackhawks prospect Philipp Kurashev had a hat trick and Switzerland beat Denmark 4-0 to wrap up a spot in the quarterfinals.

Simon Le Coultre also scored and Luca Hollenstein made 21 saves for Switzerland. Denmark has been outscored 22-0 in three games.

In Group B earlier in Victoria, Finland also secured a quarterfinal spot, beating Slovakia 5-1. Henri Jokiharju, Santeri Virtanen, Ville Heinola, Anton Lundell and Oskari Laaksonen scored for Finland. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 22 saves, allowing only Milos Roman’s goal.