Canada loses cross-border battle to Team USA

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MONTREAL — It began as a street fight — and then Team USA delivered the knockout punch.

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Three fights in nine seconds.

Anybody who tuned in a little late missed a lot as Team Canada dropped a 3-1 decision to the United States in front of a raucous crowd on Saturday night at the Bell Centre in the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Only Canada’s Connor McDavid was able to solve American goalie Connor Hellebuyck, while Jake Guentzel scored twice and Dylan Larkin also chipped in with a two-point effort.

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With six points in the standings, the United States has booked its ticket to the final on Thursday in Boston.

United States winger Matthew Tkachuk started the festivities by dropping the gloves with Canada’s Brandon Hagel. Brady Tkachuk followed in his brother’s footsteps with Sam Bennett. Then, J.T. Miller took the worst of it from Canada’s Colton Parayko.

This was a planned attack.

“The message we wanted to send was that it’s our time,” Matthew said. “We’re in a hostile environment and we want to show that we’re not backing down. We’ve had so much success, and so many players over there, are the best players in the world.

“We felt in this environment, on this stage in the tournament, and you’ve got to give those guys credit because they did the exact same thing.”

There is some concern because Matthew Tkachuk didn’t play a shift after the five-minute mark of the third period and television cameras caught him telling the coaching staff he couldn’t play again.

“No concern,” Matthew said.

Hagel indicated that the fight with Matthew Tkachuk was a long time coming.

“That’s the Canadian way and Canadians have been playing that way their entire lives. Anytime there is a bell to be answered, you don’t back down,” Hagel said.

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ONE FOR THE AGES

The buzz, and the anticipation in this city, were incredible.

This was the 15th time in nine NHL international tournaments that Canada has met the United States. Canada owned a 10-3-1 record in that stretch since 1976. The last time the teams faced off, Canada scored a 4-2 victory at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto.

Paul Henderson, Yvan Cournoyer, Ken Dryden and Serge Savard, heroes from the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union, were in the house.

Canada needed to live up to the hype on home soil but the U.S. team kept the likes of Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand and Mitch Marner in check.

After opening this tourney with a 4-3 overtime victory against Sweden on Wednesday, Canada needed to take its game to another level against the U.S., and that message was sent in the first nine seconds.

“I thought we competed hard,” said Crosby. “Like we’ve said all the time, we’ve just got to keep getting better. We’ve got to learn from this one.”

Coach Jon Cooper shifted his lines around to try to create offence.

But after scoring the opening goal, Hellebuyck shut the door as Canada faces a must-win on Monday at TD Garden in Boston against Finland to keep its hope of making the final on Thursday.

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The U.S. team did a good job limiting the Canadian chances.

MEASURING STICKS

This generation of USA players wants to show it has emerged as the No. 1 hockey nation ahead of Canada.

Captain Auston Matthews was going head-to-head with McDavid and Crosby, which meant Matthews had to lift his game. These games are measuring sticks and he had to measure up along with the rest of the U.S. stars.

The Tkachuks, along with Jack Eichel, helped lift the United States to another level in a 6-1 victory over Finland on Thursday. Hellebuyck was barely tested and this was a bigger challenge than the one he faced against Finland.

After 40 minutes, the Americans were ahead 2-1.

A bad change resulted in a 2-on-1, Larkin used J.T. Miller as a decoy and fired it by Canada goaltender Jordan Binnington on the glove side at 13:33 of the second period. There was nothing Binnington could do on that one, and Larkin picked his spot.

Only moments after Charlie McAvoy crushed McDavid with a clean hit, Jake Guentzel scored his second of the tourney to tie the game 1-1 at 10:15 of the first period. That found its way through Binnington and he has to stop it.

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McDavid opened the scoring by using a burst of speed to beat Hellebuyck with a backhand high on the glove side at 5:31 of the first period. The rink erupted, and how couldn’t it after such an emotional beginning?

FORCED TO SHIFT GEARS

Canada was forced to make one change after Cale Makar was unable to suit up because of illness.

That meant Dallas Stars defenceman Thomas Harley, a late addition after Shea Theodore suffered a wrist injury in Game 1, suited up.

It was an odd situation because he wasn’t even allowed to officially join the team until he was needed. That meant Harley couldn’t skate with Canada at their morning skate in the Montreal suburb of Brossard.

Harley skated beside Drew Doughty in the third pairing.

Makar played more than 28 minutes in the opener against Sweden, so this was a big loss for the country.

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