Marner, Canada recover, top Sweden in OT in 4 Nations Face-Off opener

MONTREAL -- Mario Lemieux stole the show before the game when he received an ovation befitting a legend after being introduced to the crowd. Sidney Crosby had most of the 21,105 red-clad Canadian fans roaring throughout, the 37-year-old dazzling yet again in a Canada jersey. And Mitch Marner sent them into the frigid Montreal night celebrating an overtime win.

Marner scored 6:06 into overtime, and Canada recovered to defeat Sweden 4-3 in an emotional, fast-paced first game of the 4 Nations Face-Off at Bell Centre on Wednesday, the first best-on-best competition since the World Cup of Hockey 2016.

"I've been saying we've been missing best-on-best and that's obviously why," Canada center Connor McDavid said. "That's as high-end a game as you're going to find, as fast a game as you're going to find. Skilled, great players doing great things. That's what we've been missing for a decade now. It was a great game all around."

Marner ended it with his own dream goal. He took a drop pass from Crosby in the neutral zone, and as Canada's captain was going for a change, Marner found some space down the middle.

As Crosby hopped over the boards onto the bench, Marner knifed through, pushing Sweden defenseman Erik Karlsson back, and ripped a shot into the net from between the circles to end a frantic, fast-paced 3-on-3 overtime.

"You tell 10-year-old Mitch that he scored an overtime goal assisted by Sidney Crosby, the guy he looked up to since Day 1, yeah, it's pretty crazy," Marner said. "I'm sure my family is going to be very excited about that one. It's going to be a really cool thing that I get to have now."

Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand and Mark Stone also scored, and Jordan Binnington made 23 saves for Canada (1-0-0). But it was Crosby's night. He had three assists, the primary helpers on the goals from MacKinnon, Stone and Marner.

Canada has won 26 consecutive games in international competition with Crosby in the lineup.

"He will go down as the greatest player to ever represent his country," Canada coach Jon Cooper said. "If not, he's going to be on the Mount Rushmore for sure of people who have thrown a Canadian jersey on."

Canada had to win in overtime because Sweden forced it by coming back from down 3-1 going into the third period.

Adrian Kempe scored at 1:54 and Joel Eriksson Ek at 8:59 to tie it.

Jonas Brodin scored in the second period, Lucas Raymond had two assists and Filip Gustavsson made 24 saves for Sweden (0-0-1).

Canada earned two points in the 4 Nations Face-Off standings for the overtime win. Sweden got one point for the OT loss. A regulation win is worth three points.

The tournament continues Thursday, when the United States plays Finland at Bell Centre (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).

"I thought we had chances to win the game right before Marner scored," Sweden captain Victor Hedman said. "We had our chances to get all three points. We'll take the point and move forward, but really happy with the way we played most of the night."

MacKinnon gave the Canadians a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 56 seconds into the game, scoring with a one-timer from the left face-off circle off a behind-the-back pass from Crosby, who was in the bumper and got the puck from McDavid.

The goal came 12 seconds into the power play and on Canada's first shot of the game.

"I haven't played best-on-best for Team Canada ever, so definitely a lot of adrenaline, a lot of nerves," MacKinnon said. "It was nice to get an open net early. Definitely settled me in. Really nice play by Connor and Sid to work that."

Canada extended the lead to 2-0 at 13:15, when Marchand scored off a 2-on-1 with Brayden Point.

Sweden didn't have a shot on goal until 17:16 (Gustav Forsling).

"Yeah, I mean, less than an ideal start for Team Sweden," Karlsson said. "That was a little bit of a nutkicker."

The Swedes, though, found their game and made it 2-1 at 9:33 of the second, when Brodin scored with a rising shot from the right circle that went in over Binnington's left shoulder.

Crosby and Canada struck again at 17:28, the captain setting up Stone for a one-timer from the right hash marks that got past Gustavsson to give the Canadians a 3-1 lead.

Crosby carried the puck into the right face-off circle, fended off Forsling, turned his back to him and found Stone cutting inside of him.

"You're not getting the puck from him," Stone said. "If he puts his shoulder into you, if he puts his leg into you, you're not getting the puck from him. … Right when he turned up, I knew I had to get into a hole and he was going to find me, then just get it off quick."

Kempe made it 3-2 at 1:54 of the third period, scoring from between the circles.

Eriksson Ek tied it 3-3 at 8:59. He lifted the puck into the net from right side after settling it off Jesper Bratt's cross-slot pass.

Binnington made four saves in overtime and Gustavsson stopped seven shots before Marner ended it.

"The ovation for Mario to start, that was pretty cool," Crosby said. "The crowd coming out for warmup, the anticipation through the whole overtime, seeing Nate and Connor pick the puck and do their thing. It was a roller coaster the way the game went but it was a lot of fun to play in a game like that."

NOTES: Canada lost defenseman Shea Theodore for the remainder of the tournament with an upper-body injury, Cooper said. Theodore, who was hit into the boards by Kempe at 2:23 of the second period, did not return to the game after going to the dressing room at 3:34.