Wow. What a tournament.
Fifteen years after Canada’s Sidney Crosby scored the overtime winner in the gold medal game in the 2010 Winter Olympics against the United States, it happened again.
This time in TD Garden in Boston.
Connor McDavid sniped home a wrist shot past USA goaltender Connor Hellebuyck’s glove side to give Canada yet another 3-2 international championship victory over the United States in the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off championship game Thursday night.
Perhaps the biggest winner of the entire tournament was hockey itself.
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This game drew an audience far and wide of more than just the average NHL fan, as it took over the sports landscape even greater than NBA All-Star weekend that it competed and went head-to-head against.
The viewership from this game will be astronomical, perhaps being the most watched hockey game since Crosby’s overtime winner against the USA in 2010.
The inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off tournament was also the perfect lead up of international play to what will come this time next year, with NHL players going to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. It’s the first time players from the biggest hockey league in the world will compete at the Olympic level in over a decade, last coming all the way back in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.
Here were our live updates and analysis throughout United States vs. Canada in the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off championship game:
Was there really any other way this was going to go?
Of course it wasn’t.
The next goal now decides who will win the 4 Nations Face-Off with either USA getting revenge for the gold medal game in the 2010 Winter Olympics or Canada beating the United States 3-2 in overtime the last time these two nations faced off in international competition.
Unfortunately it seems like the United States will be without two-way star Matthew Tkachuk, who didn’t play the entire third period and scarce parts of the second.
Perhaps his brother Brady — who scored the first goal for USA — gets his second of the night and the gam-winner.
Regardless of who lights the lamp, this is suiting up to be an absolute thrilling end to a magnificent tournament that will undoubtedly be the most watched hockey game in recent memory.
Another period down, another tie game heading into intermission.
Canada got off to another solid start in the second period but it was ultimately USA who took the lead early in the period.
Now it all comes down to a final 20 minutes. Will it be USA or Canada who scores the next goal in what could be the game-winner?
Time will tell but one things for sure: you better buckle in for what should be a fantastic third period that may not even be enough to decide this game.
Shots: Tied, 19-19
Hits: USA, 23-15
Faceoffs won: Canada, 23-20
Faceoff percentage: Canada 53.5 percent
Power play opportunities: Canada 0/1, USA 0/0
Giveaways: USA, 15-10
Takeaways: Canada, 5-4
Blocked shots: USA, 14-10
The back-and-forth battle continues as Sam Bennett buries one past Connor Hellebuyck to tie this game in the latter stages of the second period.
It’s Bennett’s first goal of the tournament, assisted by Mitch Marner, his first assist of the 4 Nations Face-Off.
United States takes its first lead of the game after 22-year-old Jake Sanderson cleans up a loose puck in front to send TD Garden into a frenzy.
Sanderson didn’t originally start for USA before being inserted in the starting lineup against Sweden when the tournament shifted to Boston on Monday night.
Auston Matthews was credited with his second primary assist of the night and Zach Werenski was given the secondary assist on the play.
Sanderson’s goal was the first for a United States defenseman this tournament.
Wow.
That’s first period lived up to the hype and then some.
After the Canada took an early lead and were in control of play for a good part of the period, the United States responded and played much better over the final 10 minutes of action.
It resulted in multiple scoring chances, with Brady Tkachuk ultimately getting the equalizer under the five-minute mark.
Canada controlled the face off dot to begin — winning eight of the first nine draws — before USA would go on to win seven of the last nine faceoffs.
United States physicality was on display throughout the first, but especially at the end when Brady lit up Canada defenseman Thomas Harley with under a minute left in the period to send cheers throughout the TD Garden crowd.
Shots: Canada, 11-10
Hits: USA, 15-7
Faceoffs won: Canada, 11-8
Faceoff percentage: Canada 57.9 percent
Giveaways: USA, 8-7
Takeaways: USA, 2-1
Blocked shots: Canada, 7-6
Brady Tkachuk gets USA on the board to tie the game late in the first frame.
Tkachuk finished off a pass from Auston Matthews from behind the net to get United States its first goal of the night.
Canada opens the scoring as Nathan MacKinnon fires a perfectly placed shot through a maze of players to beat Connor Hellebuyck high blocker side to give Canada an early 1-0 lead.
It’s MacKinnon’s fourth goal of the tournament as the former No. 1 overall pick currently leads the NHL with 87 points this season.
Sam Reinhart and Thomas Harley were credited with the assists on the scoring play.
Both goalies have played in massive games before in Boston.
Binnington, Canada’s netminder, notably won Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final in this arena against the Bruins where he turned aside 32 of 33 shots (.970 save percentage), giving the St. Louis Blues their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Meanwhile, Hellebuyck, United States starting goalie, recorded a 30-save shutout in a 4-0 victory over Notre Dame in the Hockey East championship back when he was in college at UMass-Lowell.
Whoever comes out on top between Binnington or Hellebuyck will add yet another special victory inside in their career at TD Garden.
TV: ESPN
Game prediction: USA 4, Canada 2
MVP pick: Hellebuyck (+250)
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