VIENNA, 10 May 2005 — Russia emerged as the only team without a loss at the world hockey championship after beating the Czech Republic 2-1 on Sunday while previously unbeaten Sweden slipped to a shock 5-1 defeat by the United States.

Earlier in the day, Canada’s Rick Nash and Patrick Marleau scored inside a minute in the third period to salvage a 3-3 draw against Finland and Slovakia beat Switzerland 3-1.

Playing their second game in two days, the Swedes were never really in it as the Americans built up a five-goal lead through five different scorers.

Johan Franzen broke Rick DiPietro’s shutout at 10:23 in the third period, but that was all the Swedes could manage.

Brian Gionta, Mike Modano, Yan Stastny, Erik Cole and Mike Knuble all scored for the Americans, who outskated the Swedes and made few mistakes in their own end.

Champions Canada, also playing for the second time in less than a day after a 5-4 loss to Sweden on Saturday, looked sluggish in the first two periods before catching fire late in the game. The Finns jumped to a 2-0 lead on goals by Niklas Hagman and Jukka Hentunen before defenseman Wade Redden finally got the Canadians on the board when he ripped a slap shot past goalie Niklas Backstrom with 50 seconds left in the second period.

Tomi Kallio restored Finland’s two-goal advantage at 6:19 of the third period but Nash batted a rebound off Simon Gagne’s shot out of mid-air into the net less than two minutes later to make it 3-2 as he added to his tournament-leading eight goals.

San Jose Sharks center Marleau brought Canada level when he took Brenden Morrow’s pass from behind the net and fired a high shot over Backstrom’s glove with just over 10 minutes left.

Sweden lead Group F on six points, followed by the United States and Canada on five points apiece. Finland have four points while Latvia have two and Ukraine zero.

The Czech Republic’s perfect record was broken by Russia’s young guns.

David Vyborny gave the Czechs a 1-0 lead with his power playmarker at 16:32 of the first period, and the Czechs appeared to be on their way to a fourth consecutive win before Ilya Kovalchuk evened things up at 16:32 of the second with a power play blast.

The Czechs dominated long stretches of the play until Martin Rucinsky took a double minor for spearing in addition to a 10-minute misconduct and the Russians capitalized on what was a questionable penalty call by the referee.

A shot by Kovalchuk redirected off the skate of Alexander Semin and past Czech goalie Tomas Vokoun for the winner at 8:26 of the third period.

The Czechs and Russia are tied for the lead in Group E with six points followed by Slovakia, on five, and Switzerland, on three. Belarus have two and Kazakhstan zero.