Morrissey, Canada off to 4 Nations final

BOSTON, MA – Canada jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second period and held on for a 5-3 win over Finland to put themselves in Thursday’s final at the 4 Nations Face-Off at TD Garden. Nathan MacKinnon (2G), Connor McDavid (1G, 1A), Sidney Crosby (1G, 1A) and Sam Reinhart (3A) all had multi-point nights for Canada. Jordan Binnington made 23 saves for Canada in his third straight start at this tournament. Mikael Granlund had two goals for Finland who scored three times in the third period to cut Canada’s lead to one before Crosby scored an empty net goal to ice the game.

MCDAVID, MACKINNON AND CROSBY

Finland had plenty of confidence heading into this afternoon’s contest after hanging in with the Americans for 40 minutes and then beating their rival Sweden in overtime. The Finns got off to a good start today, but Roope Hintz gave the puck away to Connor McDavid at the Finnish blueline and McDavid ripped a wrist shot past a screened Kevin Lankinen to give Canada a 1-0 lead. Nathan MacKinnon made it 2-0 just 46 seconds later, as Sam Reinhart chipped the puck past Esa Lindell and MacKinnon swooped in and beat Lankinen low stick side.

Canada led 3-0 heading into the second period and MacKinnon added his second goal of the afternoon and third of the tournament and that it turned out to be the game winner. The big three combined for six points and helped Canada get another shot at the Americans on Thursday.

“To see what he (McDavid) did on the first goal of game. He just kind of circled out and got it and (Mark) Stone gave a great screen,” said Canada coach Jon Cooper.

“Meeting with those guys last night, to win hockey games, you have to be so selfless. But it's weird how you have to tell the players, at times to be selfish and being selfish you have to shoot it, and MacKinnon did it twice.”

MAKAR RETURNS

Cale Makar missed the biggest game of the year on Saturday and called it one of the toughest decisions of his career not playing against the United States. The 2022 Norris Trophy winner returned to the lineup and led all Canadian blueliners in ice time (23:57), shots of goal (4) and tied with Josh Morrissey for the most blocked shots (4).

THE REMATCH

Canada’s win sets up the final that many predicted and anyone outside of the Sweden and Finland was hoping for. The Canadians will get another chance to beat the United States after losing to them on Saturday 3-1 but this time it will be for the championship. In the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, the U.S. beat Canada in the round robin only to lose the gold medal to them thanks to the golden goal by Sidney Crosby.

“The last thing we wanted to do was go home today or tomorrow, whatever. Whoever we’re playing in the finals, obviously, it’s going to be the Americans,” said MacKinnon.

“We’d love to play them again, we feel we could beat those guys. We plan on playing a little bit better.”