VIENNA, 8 May 2005 — Mark Parrish’s controversial last-minute goal salvaged a 4-4 tie for the US against Finland after the Americans let slip a two-goal lead in the world championship on Friday.

The US seemed set for victory in the second round, Group F game after Mike Modano and Brett Hauer grabbed early third-period goals to make it 3-1.

Niklas Hagman hit back for the Finns before Florida Panthers center Olli Jokinen equalized with a power-play goal at 13:10 of the final session.

Finland went ahead when Jaarko Ruutu’s long shot evaded American netminder Ty Conklin with five minutes left.

The Americans then withdrew Conklin in favor of an extra attacker and the move paid off with 40 seconds remaining.

Niklas Backstrom appeared to stop Andy Roach’s shot but, as Parrish became entangled with the Finland goalie and a defender, the puck fell to the ice, hit the American’s foot and trickled into the net.

Although the Finns protested, the goal was allowed after officials reviewed the incident on video.

“It’s a tough bounce but we have to take what we can from this. We fought back and we got a point out of the game,” Jokinen told reporters.

Earlier, Timo Parssinen opened the scoring with a power-play goal in the first period for the Finns. Richard Park leveled the scores for the US with another power-play marker at 12:30.

Sweden lead the table with four points from two games, ahead of Canada (four), the US (three), Finland (three), Ukraine (zero) and Latvia (zero).

In Group E, Switzerland and Russia tied 3-3.

Russia’s youngsters showed their skill against the Swiss, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexei Kovalev scoring.

The 24-time champions, however, were pegged back by Mark Streit, Paul di Piettro and Romano Lemm.

The Swiss have scored eight goals in their last two games after making a slow start to the tournament.

“We’ve got to play tighter in our own end. We have a lot of talent and can do well if we stay disciplined and don’t give up so many goals,” said Russian center Alexei Yashin.

The Czech Republic lead Group E with four points from two games, ahead of Russia (four), Slovakia (three), Switzerland (three), Kazakhstan (zero) and Belarus (zero).

Twelve teams are vying for the eight quarterfinal spots in a round-robin format.

In relegation action, Slovenia claimed their first win of the event when they came back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Denmark 4-3 while Germany and Austria tied 2-2.