St. Louis Blues 2025 World Junior Championship Quarterfinal Matchups/Roundup Day 6: Stenberg OK, Picks Up Two Assists, Lindstein Scores For Sweden In Win vs. Czechia; USA Impressive Winning Group After Knocking Off Canada

Otto Stenberg's scare was just that, a scare.

The first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft (No. 25) left practice early on Monday after a collision with a teammate during a drill. The forward would return to pick up a pair of assists in a 4-2 win against Czechia, which boats four St. Louis Blues prospects, to claim the top spot in one group.

In the other matchup to determine a group's top seed, Colin Ralph and defending gold medal winner USA put on a masterclass in a 4-1 win against Canada on Tuesday in Ottawa.

* Sweden 4, Czechia 2 -- Stenberg was the standout in as Sweden kept its unblemished record in tact. 

Defenseman Theo Lindstein (2023, first round, No. 29) also had an assist as part of Sweden taking down four Blues prospects with Czechia, including Jacub Stancl (2023, fourth round), Adam Jiricek (2024, first round, No. 16), Adam Jecho (2024, third round) and Ondrej Kos (2024, fourth round).

Lindstein, who matched a team-high six shots on goal and was a plus-2 in 22:37 of ice time, helped the Swedes open the scoring at 1:52 of the second period, one of two goals for Herman Traff:

Stenberg, who was also a plus-2 in 20:12 of ice time, set Traff up again at 7:18 of the second for a 2-0 lead:

Jecho, who had three shots and played 8:41, and Jiricek, who was a minus-2 in 18:53, set up Petr Sikora to get Czechia on the board and make it 2-1 at 11:57 of the second. Stancl, who was a minus-1 in 20:09, didn't register an assist but started the sequence:

But Stenberg set up Peter Unger Sorum at 18:17 to extend Sweden's lead to 3-1 with a little luck:

Kos was a minus-1 in 7:52.

* USA 4, Canada 1 -- Ralph, a 2024 second-round pick, didn't factor in the scoring but played 13:11 to help USA win the group thanks to a trio of power-play goals by Cole Hutson, Bradly Nadeau and Cole Eiserman.

* Looking ahead -- Depending on the quarterfinal results, teams will be reseeded for the semifinals, but on Thursday, Sweden takes on Latvia, which owns an upset shootout win over Canada, at 11 a.m.; USA takes on Switzerland at 1:30 p.m.; Slovakia and Finland drop the puck at 4 p.m., and Czechia and Canada go at it at 6:30 p.m.

Of course, NHL Network carries the action in the US, while TSN has the coverage in Canada.