Having lost their previous three matches, Niklas Edin's side were desperate to bounce back and they were able to overcome the Canadians, who had won eight straight games going into the contest after thrashing South Korea 9-2 earlier on, in the extra end.

The Swedish team were clearly buoyed by their vital triumph over Canada, the reigning Olympic champions, and picked up their second win of the day with a 7-4 success against South Korea in the evening session.

"We needed a win here," Edin said.

"Three losses in a row, and not feeling confident out there, the ice has been really tricky.”

The victories for Sweden saw them join a five-way tie for second place on a leaderboard led by Canada, who have an eight win and one loss record.

Norway, who had partially avenged their loss at the hands of Sweden in the 2015 final by edging their Scandinavian counterparts yesterday, endured a difficult period out on the ice as they suffered two defeats.

Thomas Ulsrud's men were on the wrong side of an 8-3 scoreline in their opener against the United States and they then faltered again in the evening, going down 6-4 to Japan.

The result for the Japanese gave their chances of reaching the next round a boost as they had earlier beaten the US 8-4.

Denmark were another team to record two triumphs today as they cruised to a dominant 9-1 victory over Russia before squeezing past Switzerland later on by virtue of a 7-6 success.

The day's scores leave Denmark, Japan, Norway, the US and Sweden all on six wins and three losses.

"When you start playing well, you don’t want to take a step backwards - then you start to question your confidence," Canada skip Kevin Koe said.

"Now we have a few tough games coming up."

Action in Basel is due to continue tomorrow.