Mitch Marner scored the overtime winner and Sidney Crosby collected three assists to lead Canada to a 4-3 victory over Sweden in the opener of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament Wednesday in Montreal.
Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand and Mark Stone also scored for Canada. Goaltender Jordan Binnington made 23 saves.
Jonas Brodin, Adrian Kempe and Joel Eriksson-Ek replied for Sweden, which erased a pair of two-goal deficits. Lucas Raymond netted two assists and goalie Filip Gustavsson stopped 24 shots.
Seconds after Sweden failed to convert on an odd-man rush, Crosby went to the offensive zone, set the table with a drop pass for Marner, and he lifted a long wrist shot at 6:06 of the 10-minute overtime period.
Both clubs return to action on Saturday, with Canada facing the United States while Sweden will meet Finland. The U.S. will play Finland on Thursday.
MacKinnon opened the scoring with the game’s first shot 56 seconds into the clash. While on the power play, Crosby delivered a sublime backhand pass through the defenders and MacKinnon – who drew the high-sticking penalty against William Nylander — buried a tap-in tally.
Marchand doubled the lead at 13:15 thanks to another wide-open chance set up by a great pass. After a Sweden turnover at the Canadian blue line, Brayden Point led an odd-man rush and slipped a fed that Marchand made no mistake with to convert.
At the time, Sweden had not yet managed even a shot on goal, finally putting one on net at 17:16, the first of only three in the frame.
Sweden was much better after the first intermission and was rewarded when Brodin put his team on the board at 9:33 of the second period, finding the mark with a high shot from beyond the right faceoff dot.
Stone restored Canada’s two-goal edge at 17:28, benefitting from another seeing-eye pass from Crosby during a rush that set up a golden chance from the slot.
Kempe again pulled Sweden within one goal 1:54 into the third, finding the mark with a shot from the slot while using a defender as a partial screen.
Then Eriksson-Ek tied the clash at 8:59 of the third, finishing a play from the doorstep by lifting a shot over a prone Binnington.
Canada defenseman Shea Theodore left the game in the second period with what appeared to be a right wrist injury suffered when he jammed it into the boards after a check from Kempe.
–Field Level Media
