The United States failed to hold an early lead and lost to Sweden 4-2 in the bronze medal game at the hockey world championship Sunday.
Sweden scored all four goals on power plays, with Loui Eriksson and Tony Martensson tallying in the second period and Carl Gunnarsson adding a third with 11 minutes left. Johnny Oduya scored into an empty net in the final seconds.
Defending champion Russia and Canada play for the gold medal later Sunday.
The U.S. team took the lead on Jack Johnson's power-play goal in the second, and tied it on Joe Pavelski's effort early in the third.
Stefan Liv had 37 saves for the win, and Robert Esche made 24 stops.
Sweden won its first medal since taking gold in 2006. It lost the bronze medal match the past two years.
The United States, which has not won a medal at the world championships since 2004, took the lead at 5:14 of the second period after a holding call on Mattias Weinhandl.
Johnson scored from near the blue line that beat Liv on his stick side despite the goalie having a clear sight of the puck. It was the Los Angeles Kings defenseman's fifth goal.
Sweden responded at 13:24, when Eriksson fell to his knees while pushing his shot past Esche on Martensson's pass from behind the goal line.
The Americans then lost focus and took two quick penalties to give Sweden a 5-on-3 advantage.
Within 12 seconds of the power play, Eriksson and Martensson gave the Swedes their first lead at 15:57.
The United States ended the period with a power play, but was denied by Nicklas Grossman's skate block on the goal line.
Pavelski tied it at 2:15 of the third, bringing the puck out of his zone and slaloming through the Swedish defense to score on a wrist shot from the left circle.
Gunnarsson slapped a rising shot past Esche with 11 minutes to go from about the same spot Johnson scored his goal.
The U.S. ended the match with Ryan Suter and captain Dustin Brown in the penalty box, and goalie Esche pulled, allowing Oduya to score an empty-netter with 1 second on the clock.
American forward David Backes was again a constant target of boos and whistles from Swiss fans in the crowd of 11,249 because of his strong challenge on a home player in a match last Monday.
The St. Louis Blues forward was named Friday as one of the three best U.S. players at the tournament.
The U.S. team has won only three bronzes — in 1962, 1996, also when coached by Ron Wilson, and 2004 — since it last won the title in 1960. That victory came at the Squaw Valley Olympics tournament which also counted as the world championship.
Source: AP News
