The defending champions survived a huge scare at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen but are now guaranteed of progression from Group A after five successive wins.

Mika Zibanejad scored the decisive winner after his pass to Rickard Rakell was deflected into the net by Andrej Sekera.

Austria beat Belarus 4-0 elsewhere in the group.

It means winless Belarus are now certain to be relegated to division one of the World Championships next year.

Hosts Denmark also enjoyed a second straight win today to move second in Group B.

Frans Nielsen,  Jesper Jensen and Nicklas Hardt all scored for the home nations in a 3-1 victory over South Korea.

It followed a 3-0 win over Norway yesterday.

Latvia kept their slim hopes of reaching the quarter-finals alive with a 3-1 victory over Germany elsewhere at the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning.

Three more days of group stage action are due to take place before the knock-out stages begin.