BOSTON — The Americans said it was their time, but the Canadians reminded them it was their game.
An advertisement for Team Canada circulated back in Montreal,“Notre équipe. Notre sport,” which translates to “Our team. Our game.”
And the Canadians played to that mantra in a 3-2 overtime win over the United States to uphold their 15-year run as best-on-best champions by adding the first 4 Nations Face-Off trophy to an already-crowded cabinet.
The last of the four nations standing, thanks to Connor McDavid’s OT winner.
As the winner of five of the previous six best-on-best international hockey tournaments, as well as nine of the 13 overall involving NHL players, going back to the 1976 Canada Cup, it should come as no surprise it’s Canada.
It has won many times, won many gold medals and trophies, but something else was on the line for Canada on Thursday night.
As much as both sides have said the political climate between the two nations has had no influence on the matchup, Canadian fans watching at home were certainly pulling for their players to stick it to the country whose president, Donald Trump, has repeatedly threatened them with annexation.
“I’m a hockey coach. Am I aware of what’s going on around the world? I am,” Canada head coach Jon Cooper said before the final. “I think when you’re in the position we’re in to make a country proud, to make a country be able to stick its chest out a little bit farther, that’s rewarding. And we understand that. But — and I’m probably going to speak for the U.S. team — before that puck drops, I don’t think anybody will be thinking outside of this hockey game other than winning that game.
“Do we all know what it means? We do. But that hasn’t entered into our locker room. These guys are just all in it for each other and knowing that there’s an outcome we want but there’s a process we need to go through to get that outcome. And when it’s all said and done, if we pull this off, we’ll know what this will have meant for everybody at home and we’re very cognizant of that.”
There was a certain expectation for Team Canada in this tournament.
Even though it dropped the round-robin matchup with the U.S., 3-1, on its turf at Bell Centre in Montreal, the Canadians delivered when it counted.
What else would you expect from the first time McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon joined forces to play for Canada?
It’s been almost eight years since MacKinnon last wore the Maple Leaf, when he competed at the 2017 IIHF World Championship, but the Avalanche star led the whole 4 Nations tournament with four goals.
That included the first goal of the championship game.
McDavid chipped in three goals — including Thursday’s OT winner — and two assists throughout the tourney.
And the whole team marveled at suiting up alongside Captain Canada himself, Crosby.
Cooper explained how in their country, Crosby walks on water. While the 37-year-old Penguins captain racked up five points (one goal, four assists), all anyone talked about was watching how Crosby carried himself.
There were no gloves dropped to start this one, but the Canadians dictated the pace early.
It led to MacKinnon barging up the middle of the zone and whipping one past Connor Hellebuyck to open the scoring less than five minutes into the game.
Canada was first on pucks, kept the U.S. to the perimeter and looked like the more established team.
USA head coach Mike Sullivan then swapped Jack Eichel with Auston Matthews to center the Tkachuk brothers.
That was when the game began to settle a bit for the Americans, who managed to tie it up on Brady Tkachuk’s chip in off a wraparound pass from Matthews for the 1-1 score.
The Senators captain waved the crowd up as TD Garden erupted in a “USA!’ USA! USA!” chant.
Team USA took its first lead of the night at the 7:32 mark of the second period, when Jake Sanderson banged home a loose and bouncing puck.
The Canadians never balked at the deficit.
Sam Bennett later evened the score a second time, roofing one on USA goalie Hellebuyck.
No one probably felt more at home than Canada goalie Jordan Binnington, who led the St. Louis Blues to a Stanley Cup-winning Game 7 victory inside TD Garden in 2019.
He came up with 32 saves, locking down in overtime, to help propel Canada to victory in a game compared to that very stage.
This was a moment the United States couldn’t seize, but it’s one Canada has delivered on so many times before.
It’s why five friends of Canada forward Seth Jarvis “piled into a SUV” and drove 1,763 miles from Winnipeg to Boston to support.
Canada is hockey history, and now this Canadian team is the first to claim the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off title.
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