Ice hockey Denmark stun Canada Swedes beat Czechs to reach world championship semis

STOCKHOLM - Canada sensationally crashed out of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship in the quarter-finals on Thursday, losing 2-1 to co-hosts Denmark in one of the biggest shocks in tournament history.

Sweden swept to a 5-2 win over Czech Republic and will now face Team USA, who beat Finland 5-2 in Stockholm earlier on Thursday, with the Danes facing a Swiss team that thumped Austria 6-0.

The Danish defence performed brilliantly through the first two periods but they were finally breached when Sidney Crosby set up Travis Sanheim to score at the 45:127 mark and few in the crowd would have expected Denmark, who had never finished better than eighth at the world championship, to come back.

However, Nikolaj Ehlers equalised for Denmark in the 58th minute and the game looked set to go to overtime.

Nick Olesen had other ideas, stabbing home the puck from close range to snatch a seismic winner with 48 seconds remaining on the clock to stun the tournament favourites.

They put us on our heels and we just didnt handle it the right way, Canadas Ryan OReilly said.

They got a good break on the one goal there and we didnt execute the way we needed to. Give them credit, they played hard tonight.

I dont like our schedules, a lot of travel, you could tell in the third we didnt have our normal jump that we had to.

We had a chance to win this game and we didnt. Were better than what we showed tonight, were disappointed, it stings.

Olesen described the win as probably the biggest game I ever played in my career.

I dont have any words, its unbelievable, he said. The fans here were cheering for us all game and they helped us get the win.