Canada still king of hockey hill, wins 4 Nations in OT, 3-2
BOSTON – Jordan Binnington broke Bostonian hearts in 2019. On Thursday, he crushed the hopes of all of America.
Connor McDavid, taking a Mitch Marner pass, scored on a wrist shot from the slot at 8:18 of overtime to lift Canada to a 3-2 win, beating goalie Connor Hellebuyck to capture the 4 Nations Face-Off championship for Canada at the Garden.
But it was the Canadian goalie Binnington, who finished with 31 saves, that came up big in OT.
Earlier in OT, Binnington robbed Auston Matthews from the top of the crease with a blocker save, then he robbed Matthews and Brady Tkachuk on the same sequence. Off the ensuing faceoff, Binnington stoned Matthews for a third time on a slot wrister.
The pomp and circumstance was fittingly spine-tingling. For Canada, there was a smattering of boos to start but it was overtaken by the singing of the anthem. There were plenty of Canadians in attendance, but it was loud enough to suggest many Yanks had chosen to lend their voice, helping singer Chantal Kreviazuk along.
Then came the Star-Spangled Banner. Singer Isabel Leonard was backed beautifully by the Boston Pops and thousands of full-throated American fans.
Finally, it was time to play hockey, and unlike the first game last Saturday, there were no fisticuffs to kick it off. But the Canadians showed early on why they’ve pretty much owned this game since its inception.
They took the first lead of the game at 4:48 on a goal from Nathan MacKinnon on a long-distance shot that Hellebuyck, perhaps losing sight of it, reacted too slowly to. It was not a great goal, but it was also a result of a turnover from Zach Werenski.
The Americans had some alarming giveaway problems early on but, if the first goal was not great by Hellebuyck, the leading Vezina candidate was good on a couple of Canadian chances on which he had to be physically strong in his crease to freeze the puck.
The Canadians had been protecting the house well, giving up few chances, never mind second chances. But eventually, Team USA started to get inside. Coach Mike Sullivan moved Matthews in between the Tkachuk brothers and it worked, with the U.S. tying the game at 16:52. Matthews tried to jam home a wraparound that Binnington stopped, but Brady Tkachuk was there in the slot to pop home the rebound.
Before the game, Charlie McAvoy, just released from Massachusetts General Hospital earlier after being treated for an infection stemming from a shoulder injury, was given the honor of reading the lineup card. McAvoy, who was wearing a black sling, had been so good in the first game against Canada, so it was not a place he or the Americans wanted him to be.
But at 7:32 of the second period, his replacement in the lineup, Jake Sanderson, gave the U.S. its first lead of the game. Matthews tried to make a backhand pass to Brady Tkachuk at the top of the crease, but it got deflected out front and Sanderson buried the loose puck for the Americans first lead.
After killing off a Canadian power play, the U.S. seemed to be settling into a sound defensive posture. But one turnover and it ended up in the back of the net. Adam Fox’s pass intended for J.T. Miller was picked off in the neutral zone by Marner at the boards and he went on the attack. Marner left it for Sam Bennett on the left wing and the Panther moved in alone, beating Hellebuyck high to the short side at 14 minutes.
That sent it into the third period tied at 2, but there were problems for the U.S. Matthew Tkachuk, who was injured in the first U.S.-Canada game, was clearly laboring and, in the second, he played just four shifts, all under 30 seconds. Tkachuk did not play again in the third period.
The third period was tense and defense-oriented. American Jaccob Slavin, who’d saved a goal in the second period, was immense. But in the waning seconds, a pass intended for a wide-open McDavid was picked off by Miller, preventing what would have been an empty-net goal.