BOSTON — Connor McDavid knows what is at stake for Canada as the 4 Nations Face-Off scene shifts from north of the border.
“It’s kind of like a Game 7,” the Edmonton Oilers star captain said late Saturday night. “A lot of guys in this room have been in that situation before.”
Following a 3-1 loss to the Americans on Saturday in Montreal, Canada will go head-to-head with Finland in the first game of a Monday doubleheader at TD Garden.
The first of two final round-robin games essentially will be a win-or-go-home. Either side winning in regulation would set up a Thursday championship meeting with the Americans, while Sweden would still have a chance to reach the final if Canada-Finland extends to overtime or a shootout.
Canada coach Jon Cooper echoed McDavid’s comment.
“I mean, this is a short tournament and this is our Game 7,” Cooper said. “But it doesn’t matter…if it was Scotty Bowman or name the coach, it doesn’t work unless you have a team that cares. And that test we passed (on Saturday). We have a team that cares.”
Two fights in the first three seconds clearly showed that care factor, but after McDavid wowed on a game-opening breakaway 5:31 into the first period, the U.S. took control and never gave it back. Thus, Canada finished its two games on home ice without a regulation win.
“It was fast, tight-checking, competitive, emotional,” McDavid said. “It had everything you would want in a hockey game. (It stinks) it didn’t go our way, but this thing’s far from over.”
The Canadians hope to have defenseman Cale Makar (illness) back in the lineup on Monday, though his status was undetermined as of Sunday morning. He was sidelined along with the injured Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore.
“Everybody wants to play and contribute and do all these things and, trust me, he’s the one that wants to do it the most,” Cooper said of Makar.
Prior to Saturday, captain Sidney Crosby was on an incredible 26-game winning streak for Team Canada, which had not lost to the U.S. in a best-on-best tournament since the group stage of the 2010 Olympics.
Finland finished its Montreal portion of the schedule with a 4-3 overtime win over Sweden, banking its first two points in the tournament standings on a Mikael Granlund goal on a 3-on-1 rush 1:49 into the extra session.
Another emotional meeting of archrivals featured three game-tying goals, with Finnish captain Aleksander Barkov forcing overtime.
“Those games are fun to play. There’s so many people in Finland, in Sweden to watch these games,” Granlund said. “It’s great to come (out) on top, and at the same time we are alive in this tournament. Everything is in our own hands.”
Granlund has a goal and an assist in the tournament.
Finland coach Antti Pennanen knows the major challenge that lies ahead, especially with a thinner defense corps than the other nations.
“It’s going to be hard for us,” Pennanen said. “They have so many good players. It’s going to be a huge fight for us. I’m excited.”
Pennanen, who has split goaltending duties between Juuse Saros and Kevin Lankinen over the first two games, made a forward line change that paid off at a key juncture of Saturday’s contest.
After being a healthy scratch from a 6-1 Thursday loss to the U.S., Kaapo Kakko joined Barkov and Mikko Rantanen on a line and assisted on the goal that evened the game 3-3 late in the second period.
“Some fresh legs and he can win the battles, and as we saw, he can go to the net,” Pennanen said. “That was one change we needed.”
–Joshua Kummins, Field Level Media
