Germany stuns U.S. in world juniors

In adramatic upset, Germany beat the United States 2-1 in the opening game of the world junior hockey championship on Tuesday in Leksand, Sweden.

The Americans came into the tournament as a favourite in Pool A, whileGermany was promoted to the competition by winning its second-tier world championship last year.

It was Germany's first win over the Americans in the tournament since 1981.

"Sure, it's disappointing," American head coach Ron Rolston said. "But it's a long tournament.

"We didn't capitalize on our chances and their goaltender and team played a solid game. We will be ready to go [Wednesday] night against Canada."

Marcel Muller scored the winning goal for the Germansat one minute and 51 seconds intoovertime, after goaltender Sebastien Stefaniszin put on a dazzling display in the German net through the first 60 minutes.

German Christopher Giebe opened the scoring at 13:45 of the first period with an off-speed shot over the shoulder of U.S. goaltender Jeff Zatkoff.

"If you work hard, they are not much better than us," Stefaniszin said. "They are hockey players, too. They have the best players of the world. We are one of the 10 best teams in the world and everybody has a chance."

U.S. struggles on power play

The Americans, who struggled on the power play throughout, didn't respond until nine minutes into the third frame, when Peter Mueller scored on a blast from the point.

Stefaniszin made 37 saves in the German net, while Zatkoff stopped 14 for the Americans.

"I think we took them a little lightly and I think we underestimated them a lot," Mueller said. "We did this last year with Switzerland and it bit us right in the butt."

The Germans are aiming to stay in the top-tier world championship and avoid relegation again.

"It would be a great accomplishment if we are able to stay up," said assistant coach and former NHL player Uwe Krupp. "That's the goal we set out and everything else past staying in it is sort of a bonus."

Belarus 4, Finland 3

In another surprising result, Belarus defeated the heavily favoured Finns 4-3.

Sergei Kostitsyn of the London Knights led the Belarusian upset with a goal and two assists and goaltender Valeriy Pronin stopped 32 shots.

Mikko Lehtonen scored twice and Leo Komarov once in reply for the Finns.

Belarus threw Pool B wide open with its victory because Finland was considered a contender to finish first in the pool.

Russia 3, Czech Republic 2

In another Pool B game, Russia beat the Czech Republic 3-2.

Russian forward Alexei Cherepanov led the attack, notching a goal and an assist.

Czech star Jakub Voracek didn't get any points, but had four penalty minutes.

The Russians entered the tournament as something of a darkhorse because the team doesn't have any big stars as it has in the past, and goaltending has been a problem in recent tournaments.

The Czechshave wona medal every time the Swedes have hosted this tournament.

New tournament format

The tournament's round-robin format was revamped this year. Games can no longer end in ties and are decided by overtime or a shootout, if needed.

A win in regulation time is worth three points, an overtime or shootout victory is worth two and a loss in overtime or a shootout earns a team one point.

The teams with the best records in each pool earn byes to the semifinals while the runners-up and third-place teams cross over to meet in the quarter-finals.