Canada falls to Sweden 2-0 in group play at World Juniors

Hugo Havelid made 21 saves in Sweden's 2-0 victory over Canada at the world junior hockey championship on Friday.

Hugo Havelid made 21 saves in Sweden’s 2-0 victory over Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship on Friday.

Tom Willander and Noah Ostlund scored for the tournament hosts, who clinched top spot in Group A with a trio of shutouts. Theo Lindstein had two assists.

Mathis Rousseau made 22 stops in his third straight start for Canada, which sits second in the pool after winning its first two contests at the under-20 event.

The Canadians are looking to capture a third straight gold medal minus a boatload of NHL talent — including the record-breaking Connor Bedard — while Sweden hasn’t won since 2012.

Canada beat Finland 5-2 on Tuesday and Latvia 10-0 on Wednesday. Sweden topped Latvia 6-0 on Tuesday before also shutting out Germany 5-0 on Thursday.

Sweden opened the scoring 1:53 into the second period after Matthew Poitras, who joined Canada from the Boston Bruins, couldn’t clear the defensive zone. The puck made its way to Willander, a Vancouver Canucks draft pick, and he fired past Rousseau with defenceman Noah Warren screening his goaltender.

Passed over in the last two NHL drafts, Rousseau did his best to keep the Canadians down one with a couple of huge stops, including one on Jonathan Lekkerimaki — another Vancouver prospect.

But Lekkerimaki kept the puck in at the offensive blue line on the same sequence and took a shot that Rousseau couldn’t squeeze before Ostlund slid the rebound home at 10:39.