Czechs on course

David Vyborny scored the Czech Republic's decisive goal

The Czech Republic beat Germany 7-5 to finish top of Group A with three straight wins at the Ice Hockey World Championship on Monday.

Germany, who had already beaten Japan and Switzerland, took the lead eight minutes into the game off a deflection by defender Erich Goldman.

But the reigning world champions came back through goals on power plays by Tomas Vlasak and Pavel Kubina and finished the first period with a 2-1 lead.

After opening up a two-goal cushion through Zdenek Sedlak, they were stunned by two quick German strikes by Christoph Schubert and Len Soccio.

That tied the game up at 3-3 with less than three minutes remaining in the second period.

But the Czechs regained the lead less than a minute later when an unmarked Vlasak scored his second goal after a pass by Petr Cajanek.

Outclassed

The teams traded two goals apiece in the third period before David Vyborny scored the decisive goal with only 18 seconds remaining to give the Czechs a 7-5 win.

Earlier, Switzerland scored their first win of the tournament beating Japan 5-1 to finish third in group A, securing a place in the qualifying round.

In Group B, Timo Parssinen scored a hat-trick as Finland outclassed Poland 8-0 to top the standings on goal difference over Slovakia, who scraped a 5-4 victory over Ukraine.

The winner of group B will be decided on Tuesday as Finland and Slovakia - who both have four points - face each other.

In Group D, Canada thrashed Italy 5-0 to maintain their goal differential lead over the United States who beat Latvia 3-2.

Canada and the United States play on Tuesday to decide the winner of the group.

Latvia and Italy, both yet to win a game, face each other in a battle for third and fourth place.