ESPN Hockey

BERN, Switzerland -- Dmitri Kalinin scored with 56 seconds left in overtime to lift Russia to a 6-5 victory over Sweden on Thursday to open the second round of the hockey world championship.

It was Kalinin's second goal of the game. The 28-year-old defenseman was coming off a two-goal season in 73 NHL games for the New York Rangers and Phoenix Coyotes, and had not taken a shot in his first three games of the tournament.

"He's got some offensive skills," Russia teammate Ilya Kovalchuk said. "He was in the right place at the right time. It was huge for us because we need to win our pool to be the No. 1 team and play not the best team in the quarterfinals."

Also Thursday, Ruslan Salei scored with 25 seconds left in overtime to give Belarus a 3-2 victory over Norway. Canada routed the Czech Republic 5-1 and Latvia rode goalie Edgars Masalskis to a shootout win over Switzerland after the host forced a 1-1 tie with 1:13 left.

The victory gave Latvia the edge on Switzerland in a likely chase for the fourth available quarterfinals place from Group E, which includes Russia, the U.S. and Sweden. The U.S. opens its second round program against France on Friday.

The second round has split into two groups of six teams with the top four in each advancing to the quarterfinals next week. Results gained in the first round against other teams which advanced will count toward second-stage standings.

Defending champion Russia carried forward a maximum six points but was thoroughly tested by a Sweden team which beat the United States 6-5 in OT less than 24 hours earlier.

"It is painful right now but we have to look forward," Sweden coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson said. "We played a good game and had enough scoring chances to win."

Rickard Wallin gave Sweden an early lead, and Russia tied it on a power play with a wrist shot from defenseman Ilya Nikulin. Russia led 2-1 at 14:10 when Oleg Saprykin's shot from the circle squeezed through Johan Holmqvist's pads.

However, Sweden retook the lead with goals from Anton Stralman and Niklas Persson, before Kalinin's slap shot brushed a Swedish jersey in traffic and made it 3-3.

Sweden led again in the third when Huselius scored through Bryzgalov's pads, but Sergei Mozyakin tied it again 22 seconds later. Russia got a power-play goal by Vitali Ploshkin with less than three minutes left, but Huselius tied it for the Swedes to force the extra period.

"I don't think we played our best game, especially defensively," Kovalchuk said. "We can't give up five goals. The players here are too good."

Canada got three power-play goals in the first period -- two from Steve Stamkos and another from Shea Weber, forcing the Czechs to pull goalie Jakub Stepanek from their Group F game.

After a scoreless second, Dany Heatley extended his worlds scoring record to 35 goals and Martin St. Louis made it 5-0 for his 11th point in four games. Ales Hemsky scored a goal late.

In Bern, Masalskis made 39 saves for Latvia and kept out all three Swiss attempts in the shootout. That after the Swiss had a 14-1 advantage in shots when Latvia scored on a power play late in the first period.

"I've never seen him play as good," said Latvia captain Karlis Skrastins. "He is our hero and the story of the whole match."

Norway led Belarus 2-0 on goals from Patrick Thoreson and Mats Trygg in their Group F game before Belarus tied it on power-play goals from Alexei Ugarov and Mikhail Grabovski.

Belarus goalie Andrei Mezin, playing in his ninth world championship, had 38 saves to allow Salei to score the winner with 25 seconds left in overtime.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press