Team Canada advances to final of the 4 Nations Face-Off with win over Finland
Team Canada won their third game of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament 5-3 against Team Finland. After two home games in Montreal, this was Canada’s first game at TD Garden in Boston.
Both teams had taken the same pathway through the tournament to arrive at this game, with overtime wins against Sweden and regulation losses to the United States. As such, both teams entered the game in a must-win situation to advance to the final against Team USA on Thursday.
The Canadians were pleased to welcome defenseman Cale Makar back into the lineup after he was sorely missed in the matchup against Team USA due to illness. Makar has scored more NHL goals this season than all of Team Finland’s six defensemen combined.
Immediately upon puck drop, it was clear that this would be a different type of game than Canada – USA’s emotional matchup on Saturday night, which featured three fights within the first nine seconds of play.
Team Canada got right to it with back-to-back goals. Connor McDavid scored his second goal of the tournament at 4:13 with a well-placed wrist shot before Nathan MacKinnon followed suit with another goal 46 seconds later. Sam Reinhart and Brandon Hagel picked up assists on the second goal.
After five minutes of play, Canada was already leading by two, forcing Finnish head coach Antti Pennanen to use his timeout to give his team a moment to regroup.
Canada’s Brayden Point added his name to the scoresheet with a rebound off of Finnish goaltender Kevin Lankinen. Travis Sanheim and McDavid picked up assists on the sequence.
The first period closed out with Team Canada riding strong momentum with a 3-0 advantage, leading Finland 11-5 in shots.
Team Canada kept its foot on the gas in the second period. At just over five minutes into the second, MacKinnon scored his second of the game off of a pass from Team Canada’s captain, Sidney Crosby. Both players hail from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, and have developed special chemistry through years of summer training together. Sam Reinhart received the secondary assist.
With the score at 4-0 for the Canadians, Finland made a goaltending switch, bringing in Juuse Saros to take over the Finnish net.
Team Canada headed to the dressing room for the second intermission with that 4-0 lead, also leading the Finnish team in shots 19-17.
Over halfway through the third period, Finland finally got onto the scoresheet with an unassisted goal from Esa Lindell. As the clock wound down in the third, Saros went to the bench for the extra Finnish attacker.
That strategy proved effective. With 1:40 to go, Finland found the back of the net, this time with a goal by Mikael Granlund. Seconds later, Granlund scored again to make it a one goal game, ratcheting up the tension in a game that had been dominated by Team Canada for the first two periods. Granlund was assisted by Aleksander Barkov and Sebastian Aho.
But it was Captain Canada to the rescue with Crosby scrambling up after taking a hit to score on Finland’s empty net.
Team Canada earned their second shot against Team USA in what is sure to be a high-intensity final. The championship match for the 4 Nations Face-Off will take place at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday at 8pm ET.
