Connor McDavid scores in OT, as Canada breaks U.S. hearts again in 4 Nations Face-Off final
Sidney Crosby in 2010. Connor McDavid in 2025. Another heartbreaking loss for the U.S. against the Canadians.
BOSTON ― As the old saying goes, it’s hard to beat a good team twice.
It’s exponentially harder when the sport involves a puck and that good team you are trying to beat wears red sweaters with a maple leaf on the front and surnames like “Crosby,” “McDavid,” and “Mackinnon” on the back.
USA Hockey was reminded of that fact on Thursday night in the cruelest fashion, falling 3-2 in overtime to the Canadians at TD Garden in the finale of the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off. In 2010 at the Vancouver Olympics, it was Sidney Crosby who ripped the hearts out of the Americans with his golden goal. On Thursday, it was his successors to the world’s best-player crown, Connor McDavid, who scored the overtime winner, and Nathan MacKinnon, who was named tournament MVP.
“Connor is the best player in our game and for him to put it in like that in such an intense atmosphere in a hostile environment for Canadians was special,” MacKinnon said of McDavid. “Hopefully, he can do that again next year too.”
“He’s clutch. He scores those goals when you need him to,” added all-world Canada defenseman Cale Makar.
A night that was punctuated by McDavid’s heroics, and a passing-of-the-torch moment between him and Crosby, started with the U.S. looking to cut down its northern neighbors for the second time in six days and stake claim to being the hockey world’s new No. 1. But it ended in an oh-so-familiar fashion, the Canadians scripting another chapter of hockey heartbreak for the red, white, and blue.
“It just makes us hungrier,” U.S. defenseman Zach Werenski said. “We know now that we’re neck and neck with Canada. We expect to be in those games with them and expect to win.”
This time there were no fisticuffs off the opening faceoff, although Canada punched quickly on the scoreboard via MacKinnon’s tournament-best fourth goal, just four minutes, 48 seconds into the opening frame. The goal came from a seemingly innocuous shot, the Colorado Avalanche star Frisbeeing a wrister from just inside the USA blue line through several bodies and past a late-to-react and blinded Connor Hellebuyck.
Hellebuyck didn’t let the fluky opener bother him, making three saves in quick succession from in tight, two of them with a strong extended right pad against Seth Jarvis to prevent Canada from doubling its lead.
Canada continued to have the better of the play, but Jordan Binnington made a few timely saves, including a breakaway stop on Dylan Larkin, who had snuck behind the Canada defense.
With the U.S. needing a goal to get back on level pegging and settle the nerves, it was of course a Tkachuk who rose to the occasion. This time it was Brady, the Ottawa Senator crashing the net to put home a failed Auston Matthews wraparound attempt. The goal, Tkachuk’s third of the tournament, prompted deafening “U-S-A” chants, a common refrain from the faithful who numbered almost 18,000 at the home of the Bruins.
The intensity and physicality ramped up in the second period even though it didn’t boil over into any full-on brawls like in Montreal.. After trading offensive chances early in Period 2, the U.S. took its first lead of the game at 7:32 from the unlikeliest of sources.
Defenseman Jake Sanderson, playing only because alternate captain Charlie McAvoy was knocked out of the tournament with an injury, pounced on a loose puck to slam it by a scrambling Binnington, who had lost his net after surrendering an initial rebound. The roof nearly came off TD Garden.
A needless Vincent Trocheck tripping penalty in the offensive zone gave Canada an immediate chance to respond, but the U.S. penalty kill did its job to maintain the lead ... at least temporarily. But the score was soon tied, 2-2, as Sam Bennett roofed one under the bar after a beautiful pass from Mitch Marner, who had drawn American defenseman Adam Fox to the middle of the ice to open up a lane.
The score stayed put for the remainder of the stanza with Jaccob Slavin deserving special recognition for his stout defensive play, including a goal-saving stick check on Crosby just prior to the Bennett goal.
Forty minutes played, two goals apiece, 19-19 in shots. It was about as even as even gets.
The Americans had the first prime chance to break the deadlock but Jake Guentzel’s breakaway was shut down by Binnington at 2:50 of the third. Next, it was Canada’s turn, with Brandon Hagel redirecting a Makar shot off Hellebuyck’s right post. Overall, the game settled a bit from there with both teams afraid to make what could prove to be a decisive mistake.
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In the final few minutes of regulation, as “Johnny Hockey” chants rang out around TD Garden in tribute to the late Johnny Gaudreau, it was another former Boston College Eagle, Matt Boldy, who threw a wheeling backhand just wide of goal. Canada then had one last chance to win it in regulation with an extended offensive zone shift, but a tired U.S. quintet did just enough to eventually clear the zone and catch their breath. One more comfortable Hellebuyck save and the horn sounded.
After all the hype and buildup, including the backdrop of the recent political tension between the United States and Canada, this clash for hockey supremacy had melted down to the sport’s purest form: next goal wins.
Who would be the hero? Would it be a new world order with Team USA atop the hockey pile? Would it be Canada again, as it had been in 2010?
For Canada, it was all about Binnington in OT. He flashed the blocker with a sprawling post-to-post save on Matthews before turning down Matthews again and then making the save of the night with a glove stop on Tkachuk’s subsequent rebound attempt. If that wasn’t enough, Binnington completed the hat trick on Matthews with another squeeze of his catching glove off the ensuing faceoff.
“I never doubted him,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said of his much-scrutinized netminder. “When it came to overtime and we needed him most, you make the saves you’re supposed to and you make a few that you’re not, and he saved his best for last. That’s what winners do. And there wasn’t a chance I wasn’t going to back the winner.”
A costly U.S. icing, in which the puck narrowly crossed the line and a hustling Brayden Point won the foot race to the dot, set up an offensive zone faceoff for Canada. After McDavid went forward with the draw and shot wide to the corner, Makar corralled the puck and rimmed one around the boards to Marner, who from just in front of the goal line, picked out a wide-open McDavid for the golden goal at 8:18 of the extra session. First Crosby, now McDavid. Fitting.
“I was not very good all night,” McDavid said. “All that was going through my mind was keep going. I struggled all night, but these guys played great and we just found a way.”
Another almost for USA Hockey while Canada reigns supreme.
“I just hope Canada is proud, because every player in that room is proud to be a Canadian,” said Cooper when asked about the politics around the game. “Did we need a win? Not only our team, but Canada needed a win. The players bared that on their shoulders and they took it seriously. This one was different. This wasn’t a win for themselves. This was a win for 40-plus-million people, and the guys knew it, and they delivered.”