Ales Hemsky and Vinny Prospal scored 45 seconds apart midway through the middle period to give the Czechs life and hope. They couldn’t sustain either despite receiving a 4-minute power play.

Alfredsson snuffed out any remaining Czechs chances when he found the net from the slot with one knee on the ice and a minute remaining in the period to make it 6-3.

“We didn’t have our defense playing and they took us apart,” Prospal said. “That was the biggest reason why they scored seven goals.”

Sweden coach Bengt Ake Gustafsson was widely criticized when he suggested his club would be better off losing its final preliminary round game to get an easier quarterfinal matchup against Switzerland.

His thinking turned out to be right as Sweden easily handled the Swiss 6-2 on Wednesday while the Czechs were in a grinding battle with neighboring Slovakia that wasn’t settled until an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Both teams played for the seventh time in 10 days.

Hnilicka, a former NHL player, got his second straight start in the Czech net over Nashville’s Tomas Vokoun, but the move didn’t pay off.

In 100 previous minutes in the tournament, Hnilicka yielded only one goal on 29 shots. Yet he was sent to the bench 7:54 into the second period when Jonsson deftly deflected a pass from his brother, Kenny, into the net.

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Hnilicka made only 15 saves on 20 shots before being replaced by Vokoun, who led the Czechs to the world title last year and was expected to get the bulk of the playing time after Hasek was injured in the opening minutes of the tournament.

Hasek was in goal when the Czechs won gold in 1998, the first time the NHL halted its season for the Olympics.

Lundqvist, a rookie who already has 25 NHL wins, wasn’t really challenged by his four New York Rangers teammates in the Czech lineup, who combined for two assists — one each by Straka and Jaromir Jagr.

The scoring started when Forsberg crossed a pass in front of Toronto captain Mats Sundin and onto the stick of Modin, who one-timed a shot that sailed cleanly beyond Hnilicka.

The Czechs answered less than 3 minutes later when Filip Kuba fired Straka’s drop pass off the left post. The drive ricocheted against the underside of Lundqvist’s leg and careened back into the net at 3:11.

Robert Laberge / Getty Images Per Johan Axelsson of Sweden celebrates scroring during the first period in the semifinal of the men's ice hockey match between Sweden and the Czech Republic.

Sweden (5-2) grabbed the lead back with 6:23 left in the period after Detroit Red Wings defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom and injury-replacement Niklas Kronwall set up P.J. Axelsson’s third goal of the tournament.

Sedin converted a rebound of his twin brother Daniel’s shot 1:16 into the second, and Backman made it 4-1 at 3:54. Tomas Holmstrom pushed the lead to 7-3 with 3:55 remaining.

The Czechs will play Russia for the bronze medal on Saturday.

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