It was supposed to be the battle of the St. Louis Blues' top two picks of the past two seasons.
And the stakes included who would emerge as the group winner.
Well, USA made a resounding statement as to who the winner was in a route of Slovakia but the matchup never materialized.
Jimmy Snuggerud (No. 23 overall, first round, 2022) did not dress for USA Sunday morning due to illness but he wasn't needed in a matchup against Dalibor Dvorsky (No. 10 overall, first round, 2023) and Juraj Pekarcik (third round, 2023).
And host Sweden was finally scored on for the first time in the tournament, and Finland did the honors in shootout style.
* USA 10, Slovakia 2 -- With Snuggerud out, Oliver Moore took Snuggerud's spot on the top line with Rutger McGroarty and Cutter Gauthier, and the trio combined for seven points in the game, with McGroarty scoring a hat trick.
It was a tough go for Dvorsky, who did not factor in the scoring for Slovakia (3-0-0-1) with two shots, was a minus-2 in 20:32. Dvorsky had a four-point game (two goals, two assists) the last time he took the ice on Friday in an 8-4 win over Norway.
Pekarcik also did not factor in the scoring Sunday but had three shots and was a minus-2 in 19:34.
Snuggerud has a couple days to rest before USA (3-1-0-0) gets ready for a quarterfinal matchup to be determined against on Tuesday.
* Finland 5, Sweden 4 (SO) -- The Swedes have been impenetrable thus far in the tournament until the Finns put a dent in that D.
And the Finns picked up a huge win in the process.
For Finland (1-1-0-2), Aleksanteri Kaskimaki (third round, 2022) did not factor in the scoring but had four shots and was even on the day in 20:06.
Theo Lindstein (No. 29 overall, first round, 2023) scored his first goal for the Swedes (3-0-1-0) and Otto Stenberg (No. 25 overall, first round, 2023) assisted on the goal.
Lindstein's goal tied the game 3-3 at 8:59 of the second period.
The defenseman, who had five assists in three games, was a plus-1 in 19:40 and is among tournament leaders at plus-8.
Stenberg, who scored a hat trick earlier in the tournament, has three goals and three assists in four games; he played 13:25 on Sunday.
* Czechia 4, Switzerland 2 -- Jakub Stancl (sixth round, 2023) will advance to the quarterfinals after doubling up Switzerland.
The forward didn't factor in the scoring for the Czechs but had three shots on goal and was a plus-1 in 17:35.
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