BOSTON — Canada’s big boys made a statement on Monday afternoon: They want a rematch with the United States.
That will come on Thursday night, after Canada — despite a late scare — beat Finland 5-3 at TD Garden to punch its ticket to the 4 Nations Face-Off final against the rival Team USA.
Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon each had two points, with both stars scoring on consecutive shots 46 seconds apart within the game’s first five minutes.
MacKinnon also scored in the second period to give Canada a 4-0 lead and give him three goals in the tournament. Brayden Point also scored for Canada, with Sam Reinhart assisting on three goals. Things got tight late, as Finland pulled to within 4-3 in the final minute before Sidney Crosby scored an empty-net goal (Crosby also had an assist).
Canada goalie Jordan Binnington had a shutout under Esa Lindell scored with 6:41 left. Mikael Granlund then scored twice, 23 seconds apart, with an extra attacker on to give Canada the scare of a lifetime before Crosby ended any thoughts of a miraculous Finland comeback.
The win by Canada made Monday night’s USA-Sweden game meaningless – other than the Americans just hoping to escape without injuries.
Matthew Tkachuk, who didn’t play the final 12 1/2 minutes Saturday night against Canada, did not play and hopes to rest up for Thursday’s showdown against Canada, with former Boston College standout Chris Kreider taking his spot against the Swedes. Former Boston University goalie Jake Oettinger, with his entire family in town from Minnesota, will give Connor Hellebuyck a respite and play against Sweden.
But after Monday night’s game, Sweden’s tournament is over, meaning players from both Sweden and Finland can return to their NHL teams. Practices throughout the NHL are allowed to resume on Tuesday afternoon.
McDavid and McKinnon don’t waste time
The Finns got off to a decent start, but Canada scored on two of its first three scoring chances — and on two in a row.
McDavid curled away from Nikolas Matinpalo and then fired through traffic to surprise goalie Kevin Lankinen, then a shift later, Reinhart chipped a puck past Esa Lindell for MacKinnon to catch up to. MacKinnon quickly scored the first of his two goals.
NATHAN MACKINNON DOUBLES THE LEAD FOR CANADA 🚨
WHAT A START 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/t8Sw6FRA3U
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 17, 2025
MacKinnon, who has scored six goals in four career games against Lankinen, ended the Vancouver goalie’s night when he buried Crosby’s pass five minutes into the second period. Juuse Saros, who gave up six goals in Finland’s opener against the U.S., replaced him.
Crosby redeems himself
There’s no doubt Crosby beat himself up after Saturday night’s 3-1 loss to the United States. It was his pass right onto Matt Boldy’s stick that led to Dylan Larkin’s game-winner.
So it wasn’t a shock that Sid the former Kid, the tournament’s oldest player at 37, redeemed himself against Finland.
He was a threat skating with MacKinnon and Reinhart and he set up his Nova Scotia pal, MacKinnon, in the second with a sensational pass from behind the net on what turned out to be the winning goal.
Sidney Crosby ➡️ Nathan MacKinnon 😍 #4Nations https://t.co/g3nK6X2AO8 pic.twitter.com/mKOMosnysM
— NHL (@NHL) February 17, 2025
Crosby is tied with with the U.S.’s Zach Werenski for the tournament lead with four assists – all primary — and he also clinched the game with the empty-netter.
Cooper finds Point more ice time
Canada coach Jon Cooper said after Saturday’s loss to the U.S. that he needed to give his Tampa Bay Lightning star, Point, more ice time. He bumped him up to McDavid’s wing, and voila, more ice time and a goal arrived.
Point, who had a breakaway turned away by Lankinen 2:19 into the game, buried Travis Sanheim’s rebound to cap Canada’s three-goal third period. McDavid also assisted on Point’s goal.
BRAYDEN POINT IS ON THE BOARD 🫡🇨🇦 #4Nations pic.twitter.com/W7fPwKV24q
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 17, 2025
It was Point’s first goal of the tournament and he logged 16:01 of ice time.
Sticking with Binnington
So much has been made of Canada’s goaltending before and during the tournament, especially because of the perceived snub of Vezina Trophy contender Logan Thompson.
So it wasn’t a shock that there had been some mutterings in the press the past few days asking if Canada should turn to Adin Hill in lieu of Binnington on Monday afternoon.
Instead, Cooper stuck with Binnington and he repaid the faith with a solid outing — at least until the final 6:41 of the game, when he allowed three goals. He finished with 23 saves.
“Listen, the kid’s played great for us,” Cooper said before the game. “He’s given us a chance to win and ultimately, in the NHL, if you can limit an opponent to two goals or less in a game it should give you a chance to win, and he’s done that for us. He did that for us the other night. It was lack of goal scoring that hurt us.
“I think the one thing that’s underappreciated about Jordan is his gamesmanship and his ability to play the puck. And if you look at him in all of our clean breakouts and exits the other night (against the U.S.), he was the one that started it. Hence why he had a point in the game because he’s the one that starts the McDavid breakaway. And so there’s so many more aspects to the game. But he gives us a chance to win. He gave us a chance to win the last two games and unfortunately it didn’t happen (against the U.S.). But we’ve got to give him a little run support.”
Makar returns, leads Canada in ice time
After missing the U.S. game due to illness, Cale Makar returned against Finland and showed no signs of still being under the weather.
He had four shots, three others attempted, blocked four shots and led Canada in 23:57 of ice time.
Thomas Harley was inserted into Saturday’s lineup to replace Makar and he played a terrific game, especially considered the circumstances. Harley warmed up Monday but was scratched even though the NHL and NHLPA, which changed the rules on the fly to deal with Canada being short-handed since losing Shea Theodore against Sweden, informed Canada that it would be permitted to play Makar and Harley in the same lineup.
But in the end, Cooper opted to go with Sanheim, who made the initial roster in December.
Finland’s big weapons didn’t fire
Finland was the most offensively limited team in the tournament, but still had some very talented forwards. They desperately needed all of them to produce. Almost none of them did.
Aleksander Barkov had one goal. Same with Mikko Rantanen. Sebastian Aho, Roope Hintz and Patrik Laine had none.
Finland was always going to bank on playing a patient, defensively responsible, counterattacking game, but when you go down 2-0 in the first five minutes of an elimination game, you need to open things up a bit and hope your offensive leaders can get you back in it. And that never happened, both from a tactical standpoint and from those offensive leaders.
(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
