The game meant nothing in the standings, but Team Canada missed an opportunity to gain some momentum heading into the medal round at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship.

Canada lost 5-2 to Sweden to close out round robin play on Thursday, dropping the Canadians record to 2-2, while Sweden extended their round robin win streak to 36 games.

Heading into the game, Canada had been locked into third place in Group A thanks to the United States 4-1 win over Denmark, which secured second for the Americans.

Penalties early in the first period ended up costing Canada against Sweden with Alexander Nylander and Gustav Forsling scoring a pair of power play goals just 2:23 apart.

Mitchell Stephens pulled Canada within one late in the first period and the score would stay that way until late in the second.  Adrian Kempe scored another power play goal for Sweden, their third, with just under seven minutes to go in the second.

Despite Anton Karlsson’s goal 7:09 into the third, Canada continued to battle and Mitch Marner blasted home a power play goal with 5:50 to go in the game.

Canada upped the pressure with the goalie pulled late, but couldn’t break through Sweden.  Starting goalie Linus Soderstrom left the game with 3:49 to go after making 17-of-19 saves.

Felix Sandstrom withstood the Canadian push over the final three minutes, making five saves.  

Rasmus Asplund scored into the empty net to seal the win for Sweden, giving them a 4-0 record in the round robin.

Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 27-of-31 shots in the loss.

Moose Jaw Warriors captain Brayden Point finished with one shot and was minus-one in the game.

Canada will now face the host Finland squad in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 10:00am.

The other quarterfinal match-ups will have Russia facing Denmark at 5:00am, Sweden goes up against Slovakia at 8:00am and Warriors forward Jiri Smejkal and the Czech Republic battle the United States at 12:00pm.

Smejkal scored his second goal of the World Juniors for the Czechs in their 5-4 loss to Finland to end the round robin on Thursday.