Holders and co-hosts Finland were beaten 4-1 by the US in their opening match of the Ice Hockey World Championship ©Getty Images

Holders and co-hosts Finland were beaten in the opening match of the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship when they lost 4-1 to the United States.

Finland won the tournament last year courtesy of an overtime win against Canada but got their defence of the trophy off to a bad start when they were beaten at the Nokia Arena in Tampere in their opening Group A fixture.

Teemu Hartikainen gave Finland a lead in the first period, before Cutter Gauthier levelled the score for the US in the second.

Three goals in the final 11 minutes swung the contest decisively in favour of the US, who finished fourth at the last edition, with Drew O’Connor giving them the lead before a late brace from Alex Tuch made it a comfortable win.

In the group’s other game, Sweden edged past Canada 1-0, with the only goal coming in the 41st minute during a powerplay, as Oscar Lindberg netted for the Swedes.

In Group A, it was a bad opening for co-hosts Latvia as they were beaten 6-0 by last year’s runners-up Canada at the Riga Arena.

Canada scored twice in each period, and had six different scorers.

A flying start saw them go 2-0 up in the first five minutes through Lawson Crouse and Scott Laughton.

MacKenzie Weegar and Samuel Blais both scored in period two for Canada to put the result beyond doubt, before they added two goals in the final five minutes courtesy of Joe Veleno and Jack McBain.

In the group’s other game all the goals came in the opening period as last year’s bronze medallists Czech Republic beat Slovakia 3-2.

Martin Chromiak put Slovakia in the lead in the fifth minute before Czech Republic levelled two minutes later through Roman Cervenka.

In the tenth minute Slovakia retook the lead through Mislav Rosandic, before Czech Republic bounced back courtesy of two goals in five minutes from Lukas Sedlak, which put them 3-2 up.

The Championship was due to be hosted by Saint Petersburg in Russia, but the country was stripping of hosting rights last year following its invasion of Ukraine, with the event awarded to a joint bid by Finland and Latvia.

Finland was the sole host of last year's event, with matches played in Tampere and Helsinki.

Tomorrow sees four more group matches scheduled, with France playing Austria and Hungary taking on Denmark in Group A, while Switzerland meet Slovenia and Norway face Kazakhstan in Group B.