PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- The United States beat defending champion Russia 4-2 Monday for its third straight win at the ice hockey world championship.
Sweden also made it three victories from three games with an 8-1 rout of Latvia.
The young U.S. team leads Group B in Ostrava with nine points, three more than Russia, and plays Belarus next on Thursday.
In a matchup of two unbeaten teams, Torey Krug used a two-man advantage in the second period to roof a wrist shot for the 2-1 go-ahead goal and Mark Arcobello made it 3-1 in the third.
Sergei Plotnikov cut it to 3-2 when the puck deflected into the goal off defenceman Seth Jones' stick with 3:49 to go, but Brock Nelson scored into an empty net with 9 seconds left.
U.S. goaltender Jack Campbell made 15 saves, including two big stops to deny Plotnikov in the opening period.
In Group A in Prague, Boston Bruins forward Loui Eriksson scored a hat trick for Sweden and Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg netted a penalty shot for his fourth goal of the tournament.
"It's always fun to score a lot of goals," Forsberg said. "We got some stuff that we can work on, both defensively and offensively ... to be ready for Canada."
Sweden faces the star-studded Canadian team on Wednesday.
Later Monday, high-scoring Canada faces host Czech Republic in the day's other big matchup and last year's runner-up Finland plays Norway.
