STOCKHOLM – Canada’s Mike Smith earned his first win of the world hockey championship with a 33-save performance as Canada blanked host Sweden 3-0 Thursday.

Smith, who plays for Phoenix in the NHL, was at his best in the third period with 17 saves.

Steven Stamkos, Luke Schenn and Jordan Staal scored for Canada. Matt Read contributed two assists in front of an announced sellout of 12,500 at Globe Arena.

Jhonas Enroth of the Buffalo Sabres made 22 saves on 25 shots for Sweden in the loss. Trailing 3-0 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game, Sweden replaced him with Jacob Markstrom.

Canada (3-0-1) vaulted over Sweden into second spot in the Stockholm pool with the victory. Unbeaten Switzerland led with 11 points followed by Canada with 10 and the Swedes with nine. Norway was fourth with six.

Canada faces Belarus (1-2) on Friday for a second game in as many days. The Czech Republic (1-2-1) got by Denmark 2-1 in a shootout, but remained fifth in the Stockholm pool with five points.

France shocked Russia 2-1 in the Helsinki pool with Antoine Roussel of the Dallas Stars scored winning goal for the French in the second period.

The Russians remained tied with the United States for first at nine points each. Finland was second with eight points ahead of France and Slovakia tied with six apiece. Latvia downed the Slovaks 5-3 on Thursday.

The top four teams in each pool of eight qualify for the quarter-finals in each city. Canada lost quarter-final game the last three years at the world championship despite finishing first in its group the last two.

Ranked No. 4 in the world, Sweden was No. 5 Canada’s highest-ranked opponent yet.

The Swedes had been getting their feet back under them with three wins after an opening loss to the Swiss.

The host team is expecting the arrival of Vancouver Canucks forwards Daniel and Henrik Sedin and defenceman Alex Edler in the next few days. Those players were still in Vancouver on Thursday following the elimination of the Canucks from the NHL’s first round of playoffs.

Canada’s special teams were the keys to the victory Thursday. The Canadians scored first with a power-play goal by Stamkos and held the Swedes scoreless on three chances with an extra attacker.

The Canadians had all the momentum in a two-goal second period. Their multi-pronged attacked poked holes in Sweden’s defence and left Enroth exposed.

Read fed Schenn from the opposite boards when the Philadelphia Flyers defenceman took three strides in from the blue-line, and Schenn beat Enroth with a high shot 55 seconds into the second period.

Jordan Staal scored his first goal of the tournament at the 13:00 mark. He swept puck past Enroth on an odd-man rush with Ryan O’Reilly to give Canada a three-goal cushion heading into the third period.

Canada’s power play was an anemic 14 per cent heading into the game, but the opening goal at 8:56 was their best shift with a man advantage yet.

Justin Schultz, Brian Campbell and Claude Giroux snapped the puck around the offensive zone with precision and Stamkos finished it with a one-timer from his right knee.

The Canadians couldn’t turn their even-strength chances into a second goal in the first period though as Enroth stopped Stamkos, Matt Duchene, Taylor Hall and Eric Staal on juicy opportunities.

Notes: Canada has faced Sweden more than any other country in 62 world championship meetings and has a record of 32-25-5 . . . The Czech Republic added Winnipeg Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec to its roster Thursday. He was in net for the shootout win over the Danes.