OSTRAVA, Czech Republic -- Jorgen Jonsson scored the game-winner with less than two minutes left Tuesday, lifting Sweden over Russia 3-2 and into first place in its group at the hockey world championships.
The Swedes, who lost last year's final to Canada after a controversial overtime goal, rallied from a 2-1 deficit to take their third straight win in Group C.
P.J. Axelsson of the Boston Bruins set up Jonsson at 18:27 when both teams were playing with four skaters. Jonsson, a former NHL player now back in the Swedish Elite League, one-timed a shot from the right circle past Russian goalie Maxim Sokolov.
"It was really nice to see it go in," Jonsson said.
Russia, which beat Denmark 6-2 in the first game, closes out the preliminary round against winless Japan on Wednesday.
Dick Tarnstrom, who became the first defenseman to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins in scoring this season, put the Swedes up in the first period when his slap shot from the right circle sailed past Sokolov's glove side.
Ilya Kovalchuk, the Atlanta Thrashers' sharpshooter, scored twice for the Russians in the second period.
Alexei Yashin of the New York Islanders set up Kovalchuk for the tying goal. Eight minutes later, Pittsburgh center Aleksey Morozov provided the pass for Kovalchuk that made it 2-1.
Michael Nylander, another Boston forward, tied it at 13:16 in the third period with a wrister from between the circles, assisted by Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson.
"It was a perfect pass, I just shot and hoped for the best," said Nylander, who took a cab from Prague to Ostrava to make the opening faceoff after arriving from the United States.
"I had no problems getting adjusted to such a well-organized team," he added. "We played really well today and I'm really happy ... now I'm looking forward to sleeping all day tomorrow."
In other games, defending champion Canada beat France 3-0 behind a pair of goals by Shawn Horcoff; Austria blew a three-goal lead and settled for a 4-4 tie with Switzerland; Japan scored on itself to hand Denmark a 4-3 win; and Latvia beat Kazakhstan 3-1.
Canada's victory was enough to secure a place in the qualifying round as France lost all three of its Group D matches.
The Canadians found it tougher to get a handle on the puck than on the French players because of the bad ice.
"I never thought I'd say this, and I don't know how they accomplished it, but they succeeded in making the ice worse than in Boston," Bruins right winger Glen Murray said. "That's saying something.
"After warm-up, there were chunks everywhere, there were holes. It was really bad. They are going to have to do something about it. The pucks were bouncing all over the place, and we were having trouble turning."
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press
