Olivia Knowles had a goal and an assist while Emma Buckles had two assists for Canada. In all, Canada had goals from five scorers and outshot Sweden 33-17.

In fact, Sweden scored the only goal of the first period, and when it fell behind in the second, Canada had its vulnerable moments.

"We worked really hard in the first period and tried to keep going in the second, but it was really fast hockey, and I think maybe we got a bit tired," Sweden captain Hanna Olsson, the goalscorer, said.

Olsson scored the opening goal at 3:18 when she snapped a quick shot over the glove of Danika Ranger, starting her first career game for Canada.

"Lina [Ljungblom] worked really hard in the corner and got the puck to me," Olsson said. "I just tried to shoot quickly, and it went in. It was great."

Although Canada controlled the period, the Swedes kept their opponents to the outside, blocked shots and got sticks in the way of passes, and generally played a frustrating style of hockey.

"We had a slow start, but we knew we just had to stick to our game plan," Canada's captain Ashton Bell said. "We got going, got some pucks to the net, started burying our chances."

Canada got on the board at 5:12 of the second thanks to a fumbled puck by Swedish defenceman Paula Bergstrom at her blue line. Bell scooped up the loose puck and went in on goal, making a great deke on Anna Amholt to tie the score.

"It was a lucky bounce, and I happened to be there and put it in," Bell recounted.

Five minutes later, Sophie Shirley made a great play to set up the go-ahead goal, skating circles before dishing off to Brette Pettet whose one-timer beat Amholt cleanly.

The Canadians extended their lead on a late power play, Sarah Fillier taking a shot that made its way through traffic and past Amholt, who had no chance on the play.

"We looked to pick things up in the second, for sure," Shirley said. "We wanted to speed things up and get to the net more."

But Sweden had some chances of its own, notably Olsson who twice came out front before shooting into the chest of Ranger. Olsson also set up Celine Tedenby on a two-on-one, but Ranger was there to block the shot.

"We worked hard ot create our chances," Olsson continued. "Hopefully tomorrow they will go in. I hope so. But we have to play for three periods."

Any hope for a Swedish rally was squashed 17 seconds into the third when Knowles made it 4-1 for Canada. Daryl Watts added a fifth goal midway through the period.

"We have a lot of skilled players and play end-to-end hockey," Bell described. "We have great offence and defence this year."

Today's teams swap opponents tomorrow. Canada plays Russia in the early game and then the Americans and Swedes play. All teams have a rest day on Monday.