The 4 Nations Face-Off championship game is officially set
On the heels of an epic showdown at Montreal’s Bell Centre last Saturday night, Team USA and Team Canada are not done with one another, as the sides will meet in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game Thursday night at TD Garden.
The rematch became official Monday afternoon following Canada’s 5-3 handling of Team Finland in Team Canada’s final game of round-robin play.
Both Canada and Finland entered action knowing that a regulation win by either team would’ve locked the team into a showdown with Team USA (2-0-0-0), and with Team Sweden officially unable to catch either in the points/tiebreaker department.
The Canadians, aided by the return of Cale Makar, came out firing in this contest, with two goals on their first four shots of the afternoon and in the opening five minutes of the opening frame behind strikes from Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.
Team Canada ultimately jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Finns made a late-game push with tallies from Esa Lindell and Mikael Granlund (two), all of which came with under seven minutes to go in the game before Sidney Crosby iced things with an empty-net marker.
Given the spirted nature of their first showdown, with three fights in the opening 10 seconds of play, and with no disrespect to either Finland or Sweden, there was truly no other way for the 4 Nations Face-Off to end without another USA-Canada matchup, especially with the scene shifting to American soil.
This will be the first time that a best-on-best tournament involving NHLers has come down to Team USA vs. Team Canada since the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, when Sidney Crosby scored the ‘Golden Goal’ for Team Canada in their victory over Ryan Miller and the Americans.
But before we get there, Team USA will conclude their round-robin play with a Monday night head-to-head with Team Sweden at TD Garden.
The Americans have already ruled both Matt Tkachuk and Charlie McAvoy out for that game, and with Jake Oettinger in goal with Connor Hellebuyck slated to get the night off.
