Guentzel scores twice in win; McDavid gets goal
USA at Canada | Recap | 4 Nations Face-Off
MONTREAL — Jake Guentzel scored two goals, and the United States clinched a berth in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game by defeating rival Canada 3-1 in front of a sellout, pro-Canadian crowd of 21,105 at Bell Centre on Saturday.
Dylan Larkin had a goal and an assist, and Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves for the U.S., which leads the tournament standings with six points (2-0-0-0) because of two regulation wins, including 6-1 against Finland on Thursday.
Canada (0-1-0-1), Sweden and Finland each has two points. A regulation win is worth three points, so the United States can’t be caught for first place when the remaining two games of the round-robin portion are played at TD Garden in Boston on Monday.
The championship game is at TD Garden on Thursday.
Connor McDavid scored, and Jordan Binnington made 20 saves for Canada.
The intensity and emotion of the rivalry were evident from the opening face-off as there were three fights in the first nine seconds.
U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk fought Canada forward Brandon Hagel right at the puck drop, with two seconds having come off the clock. On the ensuing face-off, U.S. forward Brady Tkachuk did the same with Canada forward Sam Bennett after one more second ticked off.
After another face-off and six seconds of play, J.T. Miller of the United States and Colton Parayko of Canada fought after a scrum by the U.S. net.
Miller was also called for cross-checking, but the U.S. killed the penalty.
McDavid gave Canada a 1-0 lead at 5:31 of the first period. He gained speed through the neutral zone, got the puck from Drew Doughty in stride and with space, protected it from Charlie McAvoy on his backhand and then lifted a backhand over Hellebuyck’s glove from the right side.
The U.S. tied it 1-1 on Guentzel’s goal at 10:15, 26 seconds after McAvoy lined up McDavid and put a big hit on the Canada forward along the left-wing wall in the U.S. defensive zone. Guentzel scored with a low shot from the left face-off circle that went under Binnington’s pad.
McAvoy had another big hit on McDavid in about the same spot at 11:55. He finished the period with four hits: two on McDavid and two on Sidney Crosby.
Brady Tkachuk also had a big hit on Doughty behind Canada’s net at 15:28.
There were 31 hits in the first period: 17 for the U.S., and 14 for Canada.
The U.S. took a 2-1 lead at 13:33 of the second period, when Larkin got loose on a 2-on-1 with Miller, kept the puck and scored with a blocker-side shot from the right circle.
Prior to the goal, Hellebuyck made three consecutive saves in 10 seconds on Nathan MacKinnon, Doughty and Thomas Harley. Larkin scored 23 seconds after the save on Harley.
Guentzel scored into an empty net at 18:41 for the 3-1 final.
Hellebuyck made eight saves in the third period.
Matthew Tkachuk didn’t play the final 12:36 of the game because of an apparent injury. He stayed on the bench.
