Connor McDavid, Canada determined to earn rematch with USA

MONTREAL — One anthem was met with a smattering of boos while the other was belted out in full-throated harmony, leaving Montreal rocking before it was rolling as three fights between Canada and USA broke out before a pass was completed in this first best-on-best game between these great hockey nations in nearly 11 years. 

The ice was then shared plenty by Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon before the outcome was tilted by Jake Guentzel and Dylan Larkin. 

In between their teams combined for 49 shots, 63 hits, and some of the quickest plays ever attempted and executed on ice.

“It was fast,” said McDavid, who moves faster on hockey skates than anyone in the world. 

He added that it was “tight-checking, competitive, emotional,” and that “it had everything that you would want in a hockey game.” 

But the one thing McDavid wanted most was a win, and it began slipping from Canada’s grasp barely five minutes after he scored a gorgeous goal off the rush and put them in a great position to go get it.

In the end, you could say it was Guentzel’s dart through Jordan Binnington’s legs that made the difference for Team USA. Binnington did, adding he should’ve stopped Larkin’s shot, too, after Crosby turned the puck over in the offensive zone while his linemates were changing and sent Larkin up the ice on a two-on-one.

Canada’s inability to cash on the many second-chance opportunities Connor Hellebuyck gave them was a factor, too. 

As was McDavid’s goal counting as Canada’s first.

That it was earned only after the dastardly Tkachuk brothers — who devised the opening mayhem on a text chain with USA teammate J.T. Miller — were already back on USA’s bench felt ominous.

This trio, which picked fights with Brandon Hagel, Sam Bennett and Colton Parayko, gave Canada a big advantage by taking themselves off the ice for the first five minutes of the game. Miller even added an extra one by taking a cross-checking penalty to go with his major for fighting Parayko. 

But the Canadians failed to cash in on it.

With tensions sky-high and margins razor-thin, it was Team USA that found the edge.

It earned them a 3-1 win, a berth in Thursday’s 4 Nations Face-Off-deciding game — and temporary bragging rights over their greatest rivals.

"They've had a ton of success over the last bunch of years,” said Matthew Tkachuk after busting Canada’s 17-game winning streak in best-on-best play dating back to the 2010 Olympics. “A chance to knock off Canada in Canada, on a Saturday night in Montreal, in that type of environment, it was incredible. It was fun to start like that."

He didn’t appear to be having any fun watching the last 12 minutes and change of the game ailing from the bench after hobbling away from his last shift.

But after Guentzel iced this one with an empty net goal in the 19^th minute of the third period, Tkachuk said, "I feel good.” 

“Definitely way better after a win,” he added. “Should be all good.”

Canada was a little worse for wear.

“It sucks that it didn’t go our way,” McDavid said.

There’s no point asking if it might have had Cale Makar — Canada’s best defenceman — not been a late scratch because he was too ill to play.

Makar’s American counterpart, Quinn Hughes, was too injured to come to this tournament, so that excuse is out the window.

And the Canadians can’t be thinking about what ifs when they must focus on what now?

They’ve got a 1 p.m. ET date with Finland Monday in Boston, where a regulation win would give them the rematch they — and we — are all thirsting for.

The opening game between Canada and Sweden was electric, with Crosby putting on a Michael Jordan-level performance that left coach Jon Cooper suggesting he would go down as the greatest player to ever don the maple leaf. USA-Finland wasn’t much of a match on Thursday, and it certainly wasn’t on par with the thrilling overtime win the Finns pulled off over Sweden on Saturday afternoon.

But the marquee game on Saturday night didn’t just live up to expectations, it completely shattered them in the first two minutes.

“A couple of nights ago, I sat up here, and if you were gonna tell me something was going to top that, I would not have believed you. But that topped it,” Cooper said. “You know why it topped it? Because it wasn't planned. That wasn't two coaches throwing guys over saying this is happening. None of that happened. That was as organic as it gets. And it was probably, I guess, 10 years of no international hockey exhaled and a minute and a half.”

And then we all had to catch our breath before the Americans and Canadians stole it away countless times over the next 58:30. 

Who wouldn’t want more of that?

The Finns and Swedes, naturally. 

But just them, and it’s hard to imagine the Canadians will allow them to get their way.

Hagel said Monday’s game is like Game 7 of a playoff series. So did McDavid. And they reminded they’re two of many players on this Canadian team to have won many games of such magnitude.

“Now it's on us here to tweak some things and find a way to beat Finland,” said Cooper.

To beat USA, he moved Crosby away from MacKinnon and to a line with McDavid in the third period. Brayden Point joined them halfway through, and he made other adjustments that he said helped the Canadians own the puck a lot over the first 180 feet of the ice. 

“We couldn’t get it past that extra 20 feet,” Cooper said, “and that’s stuff we have to look at.”

He felt Binnington’s self-assessment was too harsh, but there’s no way he could say the goaltender matched Hellebuyck. 

Now Cooper will have to contemplate whether he should play Binnington — or turn to Adin Hill or Samuel Montembeault — against Finland on Monday.

He’s hoping Makar will be in front of whoever takes Canada’s net, “but there's no determination on that yet,” he said.

We’re not sure if we’ll get the type of game we saw in Montreal come Monday in Boston.

But McDavid appeared confident we’ll see it again next Thursday.

“This thing’s far from over,” he said, and the hockey world can only hope he’s right about that.