End-to-end action and scoring chances galore.
And overtime.
The opening game of the National Hockey League’s 4 Nations Face-Off was everything fans and players could hope for.
Connor McDavid, star of the Edmonton Oilers and centre of Team Canada’s top line in the tournament being hosted in Montreal then Boston, said after Wednesday’s game against Sweden the action was “as fast a game as you’re going to find, (with) great players doing great things.”
“It was a great game all around and something the fans enjoyed, something that the players enjoyed a lot,” said McDavid, who assisted on the game’s opening goal by Nathan MacKinnon less than a minute into it.
“I know I had a lot of fun.”
MacKinnon (on Canada’s lone power play,) Brad Marchand and Mark Stone also scored in regulation for Canada before Mitch Marner potted the winner in overtime to lift the red-clad squad to a 4-3 win to open the tournament.
Sidney Crosby had three assists, including the lone helper on Marner’s goal at 6:06 of 3-on-3 OT.
Jonas Brodin, Adrian Kempe and Joel Eriksson Ek scored for Sweden.
The 4 Nations Face-Off between Canada, Sweden, the United States and Finland is the first time that NHL players have competed in a best-on-best format since 2016’s World Cup.
It was a great game all around and something the fans enjoyed, something that the players enjoyed a lot.
— Connor McDavid
The league had allowed players to play in five Winter Olympics in a row – with Canada taking gold in 2002, 2010 and 2014 – before taking a pass on the 2018 and 2022 games.
The tournament will see three more games at Montreal’s Bell Centre, including Thursday night’s U.S.-Finland clash, before it moves to Boston for two more round-robin games and the final on Feb. 20.
Both Marner and McDavid said the tone on Canada’s bench heading into extra time was calm and confident given the number of leaders in the lineup.
“We have some guys that have been in some very big spots that didn’t get nervous at all, didn’t doubt anything, stayed very positive,” Marner told media after the game.
“That just trickles down the entire team.”
McDavid said although Canada blew a two-goal lead in the third period, “there was never any panic.”
“Everyone’s a veteran. Everyone’s been in that situation before,” McDavid told media. “Everybody’s played in big games before, playoff games, Stanley Cup games.”
Jordan Binnington made 23 saves in goal for Canada, while Filip Gustavsson turned aside 24 in Sweden’s net.
Canada controlled much of the first period, scoring twice before Sweden recorded a shot on net with less than three minutes left in the first period.
Tre Kronor adjusted and responded in the second, increasing their shot count and cutting Canada’s lead to 2-1 midway through the period on Brodin’s goal before Stone scored late in the frame to restore the two-goal cushion.
Canada picked up the pace following Eriksson Ek’s tying goal midway through the third, with Gustavsson stopping big scoring chances by defencemen Devon Toews and Cale Makar before successfully killing a late high-sticking penalty to Josh Morrissey.
McDavid said he felt he and his even-strength linemates of Marner and Sam Reinhart “did a lot of good things” even though they didn’t score in regulation time.
“We generated looks, especially in the first period, a little bit in the third coming down the stretch, but that was fun,” he said.
“It’s going to be a work in progress all the way through. I think everybody’s going to be that way -- every team, every line, every unit, power play, whatever. (Wednesday’s game) was a good start, something we can build on.”
Canadian locker-room talk between the second and third periods included “where we wanted pucks, where we wanted plays to go,” Marner said, adding he and his linemates “stayed patient with our game.”
““We worked a couple of good (offensive) zone shifts, especially late in the third there to hem them in and play some o-zone.”
MacKinnon characterized the contest as “tight.”
“It wasn’t a crazy open game. They played really solid,” said the Colorado Avalanche star, who is centring a line with Crosby and Stone.
“They had two, three, four guys over the puck all the time (and) made it tough on us.”
MacKinnon, the NHL’s leading scorer, told reporters he “could have been a little better overall (and) created a little bit more.”
“But thankfully, we’ve got a lot of guys who made some great plays and won the game that way,” he said.
