PRAGUE — Defending champion Canada had to recover from an early scare before rallying to beat Finland 5-3 for its fifth victory in five games at the ice hockey world championship on Saturday.

Captain John Tavares scored the winning goal with his second assist with 8:28 remaining in the final period, finding Brandon Hagel at the left post to score into an open net. It was only Canada’s second shot on goal in the period.

Dawson Mercer finished the game with an empty-net goal with 20 seconds remaining.

Canada joined Switzerland in second place in Group A, one point behind leader the Czech Republic. All three spots sealed for the playoffs.

Also for Canada, Owen Power scored a goal and added two assists, Dylan Cozens had a goal and an assist and Brandon Tanev scored. Jordan Binnington stopped 29 shots.

Jesse Puljujarvi led Finland with two goals and Valtteri Puustinen scored the other.

Canada had a two-goal lead early in the first period after Finland scored in 2:16. Puljujarvi scored on a rebound at 1:35 and Puustinen doubled the advantage on a power play.

Canada needed 97 seconds to tie the score at 2.

Andrew Mangiapane grabbed the puck behind the goal before passing it to Cozens in the net from the slot. Then, Tavares grabbed the puck in his own half before skating to the left and feeding Tanev to equalize from the slot.

The Czechs beat winless Great Britain 4-1, with Lukas Sedlak scoring two goals and an assist and captain Roman Cervenka recording four assists.

Sweden scored a five-minute major before scoring three goals in 26 seconds midway through the period to pull away from Latvia in a 7-2 victory that earned them a playoff berth.

The Swedes, who were unbeaten in the tournament, maintained their perfect record in five games to take the lead in Group B.

Latvia tied it at 2-2 in the second period in Ostrava, but failed to capitalize after Rasmus Dahlin received a five-minute major penalty and a misconduct for charging. The defender opened the scoring for Sweden in the first half.

Fabian Zetterlund then scored twice in 17 seconds. Nine seconds later, center Joel Eriksson Ek scored to make it 5-2. Marcus Johansson scored a goal and two assists.

In Prague, Switzerland beat Denmark 8-0. Winger Kevin Fiala scored two goals and had an assist.

Center Nico Hischier opened the scoring and added two assists to leave the Danes in danger of not advancing.

In Group B, Germany beat undefeated Poland 4-2 for a fourth victory, while Slovakia also claimed a fourth victory by beating France 4-2 to move up to third place, one second-placed Germany point.