At Worlds, Sweden Wins Gold, and U.S. the Bronze STOCKHOLM - Ending the so-called home ice curse, Sweden defeated Switzerland, 5-1, to win the gold medal at the International Ice Hockey Federation world championships on Sunday. Earlier, Alex Galchenyuk scored twice in the shootout to give the United States a 3-2 win over Finland in the bronze medal game. Before Sweden's triumph, no host team had won the world championships since the Soviet Union in 1986. The victory moves the Swedes into the No. 1 position in the I.I.H.F. World Ranking. It is Sweden's first world title since 2006. Henrik Sedin, the 2010 N.H.L. scoring champion from the Vancouver Canucks, led the way with two goals and an assist in front of a sell-out crowd of 12,500 at the Globen Arena. "It feels great," Sedin said. To play in front of your home fans in your country and to be able to win, it doesn't happen often. That's pretty amazing. With its second-place finish, Switzerland remarkably earned its first medal since capturing bronze in 1953. The Swiss previously won silver in 1935. It is virtually unheard-of for a medal in senior men's I.I.H.F. competition to go to a team outside the "Big Seven" hockey countries: Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, and the United States. The last time it happened at the world championships was when Switzerland won its previous medal. At the Olympics, West Germany provided a rare exception to the rule when it captured the bronze medal at the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. The Swiss won nine straight games before losing to Sweden in the final. Switzerland opened the scoring at 4 minutes 45 seconds. Defenseman Roman Josi, who plays for the N.H.L."s Nashville Predators and was named the tournament's most valuable player, cut hard to the net and put a backhander through the five hole of Swedish goalie Jhonas Enroth of the Buffalo Sabres. Enroth claimed best goalie honors at the tournament. Less than three minutes later, Sweden made it 1-1 when Erik Gustafsson of the Philadelphia Flyers scooped up the rebound from a Fredrik Pettersson shot and put it past Swiss netminder Martin Gerber's outstretched left pad. Halfway through the period, Sweden got the game's first power play when Andres Ambuhl was penalized for checking to the head of Loui Eriksson of the Dallas Stars. Eriksson's linemates, the Sedin twins, teamed up to give Sweden a 2-1 lead at 11:42. Henrik converted a nice cross-ice pass from his brother Daniel into a gaping net, putting the puck off a Swiss defender. Sweden's Gabriel Landeskog, the captain of the Colorado Avalanche, capitalized on a Julian Vauclair giveaway at the Swiss blue line. Landeskog fired a shot at Gerber, and Simon Hjalmarsson pushed the rebound into the net to make it 3-1 Sweden at 7:15 of the third period. Henrik Sedin's slapper from the right point went off Eriksson's leg and in with 4:23 left, giving the Swedes a 4-1 lead. The play was video-reviewed before the goal was ruled good. The partisan crowd, full of yellow jerseys, exploded with jubilation, clapping rhythmically. Henrik Sedin added a short-handed empty-net goal to clinch the victory with 3:24 remaining. The Swedes exchanged their regular helmets for golden ones before leaping on to the ice to celebrate at the final buzzer. "We've been to the Stanley Cup finals before," said Daniel Sedin, recalling Vancouver's 2011 battle with the Boston Bruins. We lost in the seventh game, and that's obviously tough. We won Olympic gold [in 2006], and this has got to be up there with Olympic gold, I'd say. In the bronze medal game, United States captain Paul Stastny, from the Colorado Avalanche, and Craig Smith of the Nashville Predators each had a goal and an assist against Finland in the first period. Stastny tied Russia's Ilya Kovalchuk for second place in the tournament points derby (15), one behind Finland's Petri Kontiola, who was named best forward for 2013. Lauri Korpikoski of the Phoenix Coyotes scored twice for the Finns in the last 10 minutes of the third period to tie the game and send it to overtime. The bronze was the first medal for the United States since a squad coached by Peter Laviolette (currently with the Philadelphia Flyers) captured bronze in 2004 in the Czech Republic. "It's great for our country to get a medal here," said forward T.J. Oshie of the St. Louis Blues. Hopefully it'll draw a little more attention for the U.S. in this tournament. This was also a fine showing for teenage American talent. As the shootout hero, Galchenyuk, 19, built on his success at the 2013 under-20 world championships in Ufa, Russia, where he helped the United States win gold. Under the playoff format adopted by the I.I.H.F in 1992, John Gibson, 19, became the youngest goalie ever to win a medal for the United States. Gibson, the starting goalie for the Ontario Hockey League's Kitchener Rangers, took best goalie and tournament most valuable player honors at the 2013 under-20 world championships. These were the last world championships before the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The next tournament will take place in Belarus from May 9 to 25, 2014.