Team USA gets solid play by three Rangers in 3-1 win over Canada, makes 4 Nations final
The United States is headed to the championship game of the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off — and the Americans did it the hard way.
Jake Guentzel scored twice, Dylan Larkin got the game-winning goal at 13:33 of the second period and Connor Hellebuyck backed a stifling defensive effort with 25 saves as Team USA shut down Canada 3-1 in front of a pro-Canada crowd of 21,105 at Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday.
After the game began with three fights in the first nine seconds, Guentzel’s first goal tied the game 1-1 midway through the first period; his empty-netter with 1:19 remaining sealed the win.
The three fights “are very indicative of what this means to the players,” Team USA coach Mike Sullivan said. “There’s two teams out there that are very competitive, that have a ton of pride for their respective teams and their countries. For me, when you have an investment like that in trying to win, the way it occurred, that’s an indication of it.
“What an incredible hockey game.”
Team USA defeated Canada in a best-on-best game for the first time in 15 years, dating to the round-robin at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The loss also ended Team Canada’s 17-game winning streak at best-on-best dating back to those Olympics.
Connor McDavid scored 5:31 into the game to give Canada an early lead, but the U.S. checkers shut down the Canadians the rest of the way — and when they didn’t, Hellebuyck showed why he’s the NHL’s best goaltender.
The regulation win gives the U.S. six points and a berth in the championship game. Canada, Finland and Sweden each has two points as the tournament moves to Boston’s TD Garden, where the round-robin competition ends Monday. Canada plays Finland in the afternoon, with the United States facing Sweden at night. Finland topped Sweden 4-3 in overtime earlier Saturday.
The most impactful Ranger was J.T. Miller, who was involved in the third of the three early fights, then was the decoy on a 2-on-1 rush that ended with Larkin’s goal. He hit the post while shooting for the empty net in the final minute but finished with two hits, two blocked shots and was plus-1 in 14:26 of ice time.
“There’s definitely a tone to be set in a game like that,” said Miller, who fought Canadian defenseman Colton Parayko after the Tkachuk brothers, Matthew and Brady, were involved in the first two. “Having the brothers do that, it’s just exciting.
“I think that’s a good way to get the team to buy in early, and I thought we played a hell of a game from start to finish.”
Miller saw time on the first line during the third period in place of Matthew Tkachuk as the U.S. worked to hold its one-goal lead. Tkachuk appeared to be injured while spinning to attempt a shot early in the third period.
Defenseman Adam Fox played 13:44. His three shot attempts were all blocked, and he had one blocked shot, one takeaway and two giveaways. Vincent Trocheck, who centered the fourth line, played 10:21, had one shot on goal, one blocked shot and one hit.
Canada was without two of its top-six defenseman. Cale Makar was unable to play because of illness, while Shea Theodore is out for the remainder of the tournament after being injured in Canada’s 4-3 overtime win against Sweden on Wednesday.
Related: Mika Zibanejad scores for Sweden in 4-3 loss to Finland at 4 Nations
United States 3 – Canada 1
For the second straight game, Rangers forward Chris Kreider was a healthy scratch as Sullivan opted to go with the same lineup that defeated Finland two nights earlier.
Many of the 21,105 fans who packed the home of the Montreal Canadiens booed the U.S. national anthem, as they did before the game against Finland.
Any doubts about the intensity of the U.S.-Canada rivalry were quickly dispelled, with three fights in the first nine seconds – for comparison’s sake, just five of the 890 regular-season games this season have had as many as three fights.
Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers, one of the stars of Team USA’s 6-1 win against Finland, squared off with Brandon Hagel of the Tampa Bay Lightning two seconds after the opening face-off. Those in-state rivals had barely been seated in their respective penalty boxes when Brady Tkachuk and Canada’s Sam Bennett, a teammate of Matthew Tkachuk’s on the Panthers, squared off one second later.
“It just happened pretty organically,” Brady Tkachuk told ABC between the first and second periods.
There was actual hockey for six seconds, including a long shot by U.S. defenseman Charlie McAvoy that was held by Binnington, before Miller and Parayko began firing punches in the third fight. Miller was also called for cross-checking, giving Canada its first power play, but the U.S. allowed just one shot on goal during the man advantage.
“That was pretty fun,” Miller said of the fights. “It was the coolest experience I’ve ever had on the ice — well, one of them. To hear the building like that; it’s something you never forget. There’s a lot of bad blood, but at the same time there’s tons of respect for the other team.
“It’s just a fun environment to be in. You don’t get this opportunity very often.”
Both teams then decided to play hockey, and Canada grabbed the lead at 5:27 on a goal that showed McDavid at his best.
Drew Doughty’s superb pass from his own zone caught McDavid in full flight at the red line. No. 97 blew through the defense, weaved to his right and whipped a high backhander past Hellebuyck for his first goal of the tournament.
But a big hit on McDavid a few minutes later helped lead to the tying goal at 10:15.
McAvoy stepped into McDavid and leveled him in the offensive zone. On the return rush, Jack Eichel carried into the Canadians’ zone and slipped the puck to Guentzel, whose shot along the ice from the lower left circle slipped between Binnington’s skates — it was definitely one he wanted back.
“He’s a high-stakes player,” Sullivan said of Guentzel, a player he coached with the Pittsburgh Penguins until last season’s trade deadline. “He plays his very best when it means the most.”
The U.S. got its first power play at 12:54 when Sidney Crosby was called for hooking Matt Boldy on a rush up ice. Binnington robbed Guentzel on the best of Team USA’s four shots on goal, and Auston Matthews missed an open short side seconds before the penalty expired.
Guentzel’s tripping penalty at 16:47 put Canada back on the power play. Miller and Trocheck were the first penalty-killing pairing for the U.S., which kept Canada off the board and sent the teams to their locker rooms tied 1-1. Each team had eight shots on goal, but Canada had a 4-0 lead in high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The goalies came up big early in the second period. Hellebuyck got his pad on Bennett’s rip from the right circle on a 2-on-1 break; Binnington responded on the return rush by foiling Matthew Tkachuk from close-in. Not long after, he sprawled out to deny Larkin on what looked like a sure goal.
Things quieted down until the 13-minute mark, when a trio of big saves by Hellebuyck, a bad change by Canada’s defense and a smart play by Miller led to the go-ahead goal.
Hellebuyck had gone nearly 10 minutes without facing a shot, then saw three in 10 seconds and stopped them all. After the third stop, Boldy picked off a pass by Crosby and sprung Larkin on what became a 2-on-1 break with Miller because of the bad change on D by Canada.
Miller wisely kept going to the net, taking the lone defenseman with him and leaving Larkin with the time and space he needed to beat Binnington from inside the right circle for a 2-1 lead.
A blocked shot by Miller helped keep the Americans in front after 40 minutes. Doughty had a wide-open opportunity with less than 30 seconds remaining, but Miller sacrificed his body and blocked the shot.
“I thought we defended well, even with the lead, which is hard to do against a team like that,” Miller said. “I thought that even in the third (period), we got up ice and made it hard on them through the neutral zone. We tightened up in the D-zone and broke up a lot of passes.”
With the U.S. clogging things up, neither team generated much offense in the first 12 minutes of the third period before Hellebuyck came out to the top of his crease to deny McDavid. Binnington was largely a spectator until coming up big to stop Brady Tkachuk on a breakaway with 5:49 remaining.
Canada pulled Binnington with more that two minutes remaining but generated little until Guentzel sealed it by taking a pass from Larkin and hitting the empty net.
The 4 Nations Face-Off shifts to Boston on Monday when the United States plays Sweden and Canada takes on Finland. The championship game is Thursday. Team USA has six points and each of the other teams has two apiece, setting up a wild doubleheader on Monday.
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