HERNING, Denmark — The United States blew a three-goal first-period lead before beating Germany 6-3 at the ice hockey world championship on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Conor Garland’s power-play goal 4:50 into the third period proved to be the winner as the Americans moved to third in Group B. The top four advance to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked our start and response in the third period,\u201d U.S. coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “They\u2019re (Germany) a good team. They\u2019re well coached and play hard. We knew it would be a battle and I\u2019m proud of our guys.”<\/p>\n
Tage Thompson struck 1:42 into the game on a power play for his fourth goal of the tournament. Frank Nazar doubled the advantage and Drew O\u2019Connor made it 3-0 on a rebound with 5:43 left in the first.<\/p>\n
But the U.S. is making a habit of squandering leads. It lost a four-goal advantage before beating Norway 6-5 in overtime Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Germany scored three times in the second. Defenseman Erik Mic’s goal 8:43 into the period sparked the rally. Jonas Muller scored from the slot with 5:17 remaining and Wojciech Stachowiak leveled less than a minute later on a power play.<\/p>\n
After Garland’s go-ahead goal, Logan Cooley made it 5-3 with 3:29 to go and Clayton Keller scored into an empty net with 1:53 left. Garland had three assists.<\/p>\n
In Stockholm, Sweden shut out winless France 4-0 to stay perfect and lead Group A with six wins from six games. Isac Lundestrom and Raymond Lucas had a goal and an assist each and Samuel Ersson stopped 15 shots.<\/p>\n
In Herning, the Czech Republic routed Kazakhstan 8-1 with captain Roman Cervenka contributing a hat trick. The Czechs top Group B.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Finland defeated Latvia 2-1 to stay third in Group A. Latvia was fifth.<\/p>\n
Later Saturday, Canada played Slovakia and Denmark took on Norway.<\/p>\n
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