Sweden's Oliver Ekman Larsson, left, congratulates Sweden's Jacob Josefson on his first-period goal on Sunday. (Geoff Howe/Canadian Press)

Oliver Ekman Larsson and Anton Rodin each had two goals and an assist to help Sweden beat Austria 7-3 at the world junior hockey championships Sunday in Regina.

For the second time in two days, Austria surprised its opponents and world junior fans by making a close game out of what most thought would be a slaughter.

Sweden (2-0-0) entered the game with some swagger following a 10-1 pounding of the Czech Republic 24 hours earlier, while the Austrians (0-2-0) came in confident after a respectable 6-2 loss to Russia on Saturday night.

Both teams went with different goalies than the day before. Anders Nilsson, a New York Islanders draft pick, started for Sweden while Marco Wieser got the nod for Austria.

New Jersey Devils draft pick Jacob Josefson opened the scoring for Sweden before the game was a minute old with a top-shelf slapshot from the point. Ekman Larsson, a Phoenix Coyotes pick, assisted on the goal.

Sweden struck again with just over a minute to go in the first with another slapshot from the point, this time from Ekman Larsson. Josefson, with his second point of the period, and 17-year-old Adam Larsson assisted on the goal.

Big hits from Austria

In between, Austria recorded just three shots but held its own against the Swedes defensively and threw several big hits.

As they did in the first, Sweden bookended the middle frame with early and late goals. Rodin, a Vancouver Canucks pick, struck for Sweden, banging in his own rebound with an assist by Jakob Silfverberg (Ottawa Senators) and then notching his second of the game and third of the tournament on a breakaway goal set up by Larsson.

This time, however, the Austrians not only continued to play inspired hockey, they surprised the Swedes with three straight goals in the period.

Alexander Pallestrang got Austria on board with a power-play slapshot from point that hit something in front and beat Nilsson. Nikolaus Hartl picked up the assist.

The Swedes, perhaps rattled by the Austrians' tenacity, then took a too-many-men penalty and on the ensuing power play, Dominique Heinrich scored with a one-timer set up by Andreas Kristler and Stefan Ulmer of the WHL's Spokane Chiefs.

Less than two minutes later, Konstantin Komarek notched his second of the tournament with feeds from Heinrich and Kristler.

By the third, the 5,025 in attendance were rooting for the Austrians, who have quickly emerged as fan favourites in Regina. Austria managed to kill off a four-minute penalty to start the third but three late Sweden goals — by Nashville Predator pick Mattias Ekholm, Andre Petersson (Ottawa Senators) and Larsson with his second of the night — put things out of reach for the underdog squad.

Nilsson made 24 stops for the win while Wieser made 47 stops in the loss.

U.S. blanks Switzerland

Jack Campbell turned aside 22 shots as the U.S. remained unbeaten at the tournament Sunday with a 3-0 victory over Switzerland.

Jack Kreider, Matt Donovan and A.J. Jenks had goals for the Americans (2-0), who opened the tournament with an equally impressive 7-3 win over Slovakia on Saturday.

Benjamin Conz made 46 saves for Switzerland (0-1).

With a partisan crowd in Saskatoon behind them, the Swiss were the stronger side in the opening period, generating more scoring chances than the Americans. Sven Ryser had a chance to put Switzerland up 1-0, but was denied by Campbell on a partial breakaway with six minutes remaining in the period.

Kreider was the only player to beat Conz in the opening 40 minutes when he deflected a Cam Fowler point shot on the power play at 5:51 of the second period. Conz appeared to not see the puck until it was in the net.

Conz was sensational from that point on as the Americans rifled 38 shots on goal over the final two periods. But the Swiss couldn't convert their chances, and Donovan gave the U.S. a 2-0 lead with seven minutes left. Jenks put the game out of reach four minutes later.

Switzerland faces Canada on Monday while the Americans' next game is Tuesday against Latvia.

Finns down Czechs

Finland scored three times in the third period Sunday en route to a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Czech Republic in Group B action.

Down 3-0 late in the second, Finland managed to get on the board when Edmonton Oiler draft pick Teemu Hartikainen fired a shot past Czech goalie Jakub Sedlacek from a bad angle. Mikael Granlund picked up the assist.

The Czechs took back-to-back penalties to start the third and killed off the first, but before the second expired Finland's Sami Vatanen hammered a slapshot over Sedlacek's shoulder to make it 3-2.

Vatanen then evened things up with another highlight reel effort when he fooled a Czech defender and Sedlacek with two dekes to tie the game 3-3 with five minutes left. Picking up assists were Mattias Myttynen and Jani Lajunen.

Joonas Rask completed Finland's comeback when he banged in a rebound with just over two minutes to go in regulation.

Following an embarrassing 10-1 loss to Sweden on Saturday, the Czechs (0-2-0) started out strong against the Finns, scoring twice in the first.

Slovaks rout Latvia

Windsor Spitfires forward Richard Panik scored two of Slovakia's five first-period goals in an 8-3 win over Latvia.

Panik, a second-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in last June's NHL draft, put the Slovaks (1-1) up 2-0 with a pair of goals just 3:44 into the game. He added an assist on Marek Viedensky's goal at 5:31 of the period, and Slovakia added two more to go into the intermission up 5-0.

Tomas Tatar also scored twice in the victory, while Viedensky finished with a goal and three assists. Matus Rais, Radoslav Illo and Jakub Gasparovic added singles.