MINSK, Belarus — Defending champion Sweden edged France 2-1 at the world hockey championship on Thursday while Finland downed Belarus 2-0, and the United States suffered a second straight loss, 6-5 to Latvia.
For Sweden, which meets Canada on Sunday, Joel Lundquist and Oscar Moller scored 17 seconds apart in the second. Canada beat Denmark 6-1.
Stephane Da Costa scored the lone French goal.
"We’re happy with the three points but we know we have to play better later on here," Lundquist, the Sweden captain, said.
Latvia earned its third win over the U.S. at the worlds.
Zemgus Girgensons squeezed the puck between the pads of veteran goaltender Tim Thomas to break a 4-4 tie in the third, and Herberts Vasiljevs made it 6-4 with the winner with 2:21 left.
Brock Nelson’s second goal for the U.S. with 1:30 remaining in regulation was too late.
Latvia goalie Kristers Gudlevskis made 31 saves, while Thomas stopped 19 shots.
Goals from Gints Meija, Mikelis Redhlins and Aleksandrs Nizivijs gave Latvia 3-1 lead but Nelson and Tyler Johnson scored on power-plays to tie it up in the second period.
"Six goals is just too many (to concede)," scoring defenceman Seth Jones said. "We are doing a lot of good things but have to tighten up defensively. We can’t let teams get too close to the net."
Petri Kontiola scored both goals, the second into an empty net, for Finland’s second victory.
Russia leads their group, followed by Lativa, then Finland, Belarus and the U.S.
