4 NATIONS: McDavid & Canada edge Sweden in OT thriller

MONTREAL, QC – Too long we've waited to see both Connor McDavid and Team Canada return to best-on-best hockey, but oh how sweet of a return it was.

"I've been saying we've been missing best on best, and that's obviously why," Connor McDavid said post-game.

"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, and it was a great game all around and something the fans enjoyed and something that the players enjoyed a lot.

"I know I had a lot of fun."

Connor McDavid had an assist for Team Canada in his first international appearance in over eight years at Bell Centre on Wednesday night in a 4-3 overtime victory over Mattias Ekholm, Viktor Arvidsson and Team Sweden to open the 4 Nations Face-Off.

McDavid looked a force to be reckoned with all night with captain Sidney Crosby, who played his archetypical role for Canada by recording three assists – including the primary helper on Mitch Marner’s winner at 6:06 during three-on-three sudden death.

“He's amazing. He's just ageless. It's a credit to him,” McDavid said of Crosby.

“It's a credit to how much he puts into it his work ethic, credit to how he takes care of himself and credit to how smart he is out there. He just gets it done time and time again, and he did that again tonight.”

No. 97 and No. 87 combined with Nathan MacKinnon in the game’s opening minute on the power play to prove the hype behind their star-studded man advantage wasn’t being exaggerated, working an incredible tic-tac-toe play to get Canada on the board 1-0 just 56 seconds into the contest.

McDavid exchanged passes with Crosby, who put it through his own legs and Ekholm’s as he dropped to his knees trying to defend the play before MacKinnon wired a one-timer past Filip Gustavsson from the other side to blow the lid off Bell Centre with a beautiful go-ahead goal.

“It's really fun to know that everybody can think on the same level and can execute on the same level,” McDavid said of the power play. “We worked hard out of the two days of practice. Obviously, we had 10 seconds of power play time, but we made it worthwhile. There’s a lot more work to go, but it was a good start.”

Over half a period later, Canada’s other veteran forward in Brad Marchand – who’s in the last year of his contract with the Boston Bruins this season – made it 2-0 as the hosts enjoyed a fast start at 4 Nations thanks to their speed against the Swedes.

McDavid was looking another level every time he touched the puck, getting back-to-back looks on a pair of through-the-legs moves to get around Sweden's defenders before trying to find his linemates Reinhart and Marner out front for tap-ins, though none of them could be converted.

“I thought we did a lot of good things,” he said of his line. “I thought we got a little bit unlucky not to find one. We generated looks, especially in the first period there, a little bit there in the third and coming down the stretch, but it was fun. It's going to be a work in progress all the way through. I think everybody's going to be that way – every team, every line, every unit on the power play, whatever – it's going to be a work in progress, and today was a good start and something we can build on for sure.”

Canada carried the majority of the play during the opening frame with a 20-13 overall lead in scoring chances, as per Natural Stat Trick, with McDavid recording three of his five total High Danger Chances For (HDCF) in the opening 20 minutes.

Ekholm might’ve been undone on Team Canada’s terrific power-play tally, but the Oilers defenceman played a role in Sweden’s pushback in the middle frame with a critical break-up on a two-on-one before earning a secondary assist 1:56 into the third period on Adrian Kempe’s goal that made it 3-2.

Later in the frame, the moment Ekholm had been waiting for arrived when McDavid came head-on against him on a fast rush that sent the Swedish defenceman spinning to keep him outside before McDavid tried another wrap-around that didn’t produce a Canada goal.

Oilers forward Viktor Arvidsson also had his strong moments for the Swedes, recording a shot and a block over 10:08 of total ice time playing the majority of his shifts next to Elias Lindholm and Gustav Nyquist.

After Sweden tied it 3-3 in the third period on Joel Eriksson Ek’s goal and failed to convert their only power play, the game headed to a 10-minute three-on-three overtime, where McDavid took a shift on a dream-team line with MacKinnon and Makar that saw them fail to score on a three-on-one rush.

With 3:54 left in a thrilling overtime, Marner snapped one past Gustavsson after Crosby passed off to the Maple Leaf in the neutral zone, resulting in his third assist on the winner in a 4-3 victory for Canada.

'It was high end, obviously," McDavid said of the extended three-on-three overtime.

"Nate going a million miles an hour everywhere. Guys making good plays. Binner with huge saves. Yeah, it was entertaining. Mitch obviously with a great shot to end it off. It was great. I think it's a great kind of trial run [for the NHL] and something that I think maybe the players liked. I think the fans liked it. It felt a little bit more like it's in our hands. I don't think really anyone wants it to go to a shootout, but good thing we were able to find one there."