BOSTON — Connor McDavid scored 8:18 into overtime, propelling Canada to a 3-2 win over the United States in the championship game of the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday.
The Edmonton Oilers star received Mitch Marner’s centering feed and buried a wrist shot from the slot to score the golden goal, his third tally of the tournament.
Marner assisted on Canada’s final two goals. Sam Bennett scored the tying marker with six minutes left in the second period.
Nathan MacKinnon’s tournament-leading fourth goal opened the scoring for Canada.
Jordan Binnington made 31 saves in the Canadian net, including six in overtime.
Binnington was spectacular while denying a U.S. surge early in the extra session, including a stop on Auston Matthews’ drive to the doorstep at 2:51. Less than two minutes later, the St. Louis Blues goalie stopped another Matthews shot, then saved Brady Tkachuk’s rebound chance.
Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson netted back-to-back goals to lead the U.S. out of an early 1-0 deficit. Matthews assisted on both.
U.S. goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stopped 24 shots.
It was the North American archrivals’ first best-on-best championship meeting since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics — also won by Canada 3-2 in overtime. The U.S. earned a 3-1 victory over Canada in the teams’ round-robin clash on Saturday in Montreal.
MacKinnon scored first 4:48 in, receiving Thomas Harley’s pass from the left point and curling into the slot to send a shot into heavy traffic and past Hellebuyck’s blocker.
Before the Americans tied the score, Hellebuyck made several high-quality saves, including two on Bennett during a net-mouth scramble with 6:19 left in the first. A minute earlier, Binnington stopped Dylan Larkin on a partial breakaway.
Tkachuk made it 1-1 with 3:08 before the first intermission, beating Binnington after he charged down the slot to take Matthews’ wraparound feed.
After Zach Werenski’s point shot was saved, Matthews picked up the rebound and a deflection led the puck to the stick of Sanderson, who snapped home the United States’ first go-ahead tally at 7:32 of the second.
The Canadians were not deterred following an empty power play, and Bennett knotted the score at 14:00. After Marner picked off an errant puck in neutral ice, Bennett drove down the left wing and lifted the puck top-shelf on Hellebuyck.
In the third, Binnington made multiple point-blank stops on Jake Guentzel in the opening minutes before Canada nearly took the lead back at 5:29 as a Brandon Hagel redirect clanked the left post.
Hellebuyck flashed his glove to stop Cale Makar’s shot with 5.6 seconds remaining in regulation.
–Joshua Kummins, Field Level Media
