LEKSAND, Sweden _ Marcel Muller scored 1:51 into overtime and Germany edged the United States 2-1 for the first time in 25 years at the world under-20 hockey championship on Tuesday.

Two-time defending champion Canada downed host Sweden 2-0 in the other Group A game,

In Group B, Belarus rallied from 2-1 down after two periods to edge Finland 4-3, and Russia nipped the Czech Republic 3-2.

Germany's last victory against the United States was as West Germany in 1981.

The Americans outshot Germany 39-16 but the latter scored first on defenseman Christopher Giebe's power-play goal at 13:45.

Peter Mueller leveled at 8:56 in the last period with a one-timer past the excellent _ but screened _ German goalie Sebastian Stefaniszyn.

For the winning goal, defenseman Christopher Fischer made a rush deep into the American zone and sent a short drop-pass for Muller to score through goalie Jeff Zatkoff's pads.

Canada's scores came from Luc Bourdon, who has played nine games for the NHL Vancouver Canucks this season, and Brad Merchand on power plays. Carey Price, who stopped 31 shots, earned the shutout.

At the nearby town of Mora, Yuriy Ilin, Sergei Kostitsyn (short-handed) and Mikhail Stefanovich scored successive goals in the third period for Belarus to beat the favored Finns.

Mikko Lehtonen claimed his second goal with 33 seconds left for Finland, which outshot Belarus 35-17.

Russia's 17-year-old star Alexei Cherepanov scored a power-play goal and set up Alexander Bumagin for the game-winner in the third period against the Czechs.