4 NATIONS: McDavid's goal not enough for Canada in 3-1 defeat to United States

MONTREAL, QC – It was 'Oh, McDavid!' jubilation to start, but it ended in 'Oh, Canada... disappointment.

Sadly for Team Canada and Oilers captain Connor McDavid, his terrific tally to open the scoring in the first period on Saturday would be their only goal in a 3-1 defeat to Team USA, leaving them in need of a victory on Monday against Team Finland to set up a rematch with their rivals in the Final of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday.

"Really high [quality], obviously," McDavid said of Saturday's contest. "As I said the other night, there's a lot of great players out there. It was fast again, tight-checking, competitive, emotional – it had everything that you would want in a hockey game I thought.

"It sucks that it didn't go our way, but this thing's far from over."

McDavid gave Canada the 1-0 lead just 5:31 into the first period at Bell Centre in Montreal with an amazing backhand finish past goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, but after winger Jake Guentzel responded under five minutes later to make it one-all at the end of the opening 20 minutes, centre Dylan Larkin's marker with 6:27 gone in the middle frame would stand up as the game-winner to get the United States into Thursday's Championship game in Boston.

Guentzel added an empty-netter and finished as the game's First Star for the U.S. with a two-goal performance, while McDavid's lone goal for Canada earned him Third Star honours behind Larkin's goal and assist.

Canada goaltender Jordan Binnington recorded the secondary assist on McDavid's early go-ahead goal, but was beaten twice on 22 shots to take the defeat. The game started off with a bang following three fights in the opening nine seconds of regulation, setting the stage for what was an exciting match.

Whatever your expectations were coming out of the gate considering the history and diplomacy of the two-best hockey nations and long-time rivals who share a border, consider them exceeded after the fireworks performance we were lucky to witness in the opening moments of the first period.

Edmonton-raised and Tampa Bay Lightning winger Brandon Hagel went toe-to-toe with Matthew Tkachuk off the opening faceoff before his brother joined him in the box when Brady squared off with Sam Bennett for some cross-border trading in the return of hockey’s greatest rivalry on the international stage.

Just six seconds later, St. Albert product Colton Parayko got involved in front of Canada’s net in a tilt against J.T. Miller that saw the American get the extra minor for cross-checking – sending the Red & White to a power play they couldn’t leverage into an early goal.

"We wanted to get off to a good start and get the fans into it," McDavid said. "Pretty proud of all three of those guys stepping up and doing that."

"The building was into it," Sidney Crosby added. "I thought that was a great start, and that's a lot of emotion, a lot of intensity and what we expected."

It was a fast and exciting start in Montreal that was close to 10 years in the making since these two nations last battled in best-on-best hockey, and Head Coach Jon Cooper said the early anomosity was entirely driven by the players and the passion in the rivalry.

"A couple nights ago, when I sat up here and if you were going to tell me something was going to top that, I would not have believed you. But that topped it," Head Coach Jon Cooper said. "You know why it topped it? Because it wasn't planned. That wasn't two coaches throwing guys over saying, 'this is happening'. None of that happened. That was as organic as it gets, and it was probably 10 years of no international hockey exhaled in a minute and a half."

The biggest eruption arrived just past the five-and-a-half-minute mark courtesy of a beautiful take and finish from the Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who “a fait sauter le toit du Centre Bell” to open the scoring in Montreal.

Translation? Blew the roof off.

McDavid took a pass in the neutral zone from defenceman Drew Doughty with speed and breezed past Zach Werenski and Charlie McAvoy before sifting a backhand shot over the left shoulder of netminder Connor Hellebuyck, scoring his first of the tournament in style to put Canada up 1-0 against the USA.

In the brightest spotlight of his career outside the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, McDavid has not disappointed so far at 4 Nations, showing exactly why he’s considered – and proven – he’s the best in the world with a skillset that has him looking like he’s on a different planet.

"Connor goes out there and gets the first one," Crosby said. "It was a great atmosphere."

McDavid took a hard hit from McAvoy a few minutes later that seemed to spark the Stars & Stripes, who began shifting the momentum and tied the game off forward Jake Guentzel’s shot along the ice that went five-hole on Jordan Binnington at 10:15 of the frame.

"I can't sit here and say [Binnington] was fighting it," Cooper said. "Jake Guentzel plays for me and Binnington knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. I've seen that goal a thousand times, and Jake still finds a way to score those goals. Pucks have eyes for some players. It has eyes for him. Of course, any goaltender wants to have them all back, but I think he's been a little hard on himself to be honest."

Both nations killed off penalties and were tied heading into the second period, where the United States looked the better team and took the lead with 6:27 left in the stanza after Sidney Crosby’s giveaway in Canada’s zone resulted in Dylan Larkin firing far side against Binnington on an odd-man rush.

"Both sides had their chances. I thought we traded momentum throughout the game and that that's how I felt," Crosby said. "Obviously, it's a game of mistakes, and I turn one over there and it ends up in the back of the net. It's as quick as that. Just little plays here and there.

McDavid was 7-for-13 on draws on Saturday night, but was 4-for-6 in the offensive zone as he continued to be placed into a leading role for Canada in their search for an equalizer, working his ice time up to a team-high 22:44 of ice time by the time the game was over – m ore than three minutes higher than the next-closest forward and his linemate Mitch Marner.

Everything was going through No. 97 during six-on-five in the final two minutes of regulation, but it wasn’t meant to be for Canada, with Guentzel tacking on another into the empty net to seal a 3-1 victory for the United States.

Canada had a 12-5 advantage in High Danger Chances For (HDCF) over the United States, as per Natural Stat Trick, but were made to pay on a few costly mistakes – including Crosby's giveaway the resulted in Larkin's decisive goal.

"For the most part, I thought we did a good job of getting pucks in there and trying to get tips and second third chances," Crosby said. "But we'll have to look at it and see if there were opportunities maybe to shoot more."

The victory is the USA’s first over Canada in best-on-best tournament play since a 5-3 win on Feb. 21, 2010 during the preliminary of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver at Rogers Arena, and Canada will be hoping to follow that same script this time after they exacted revenge in the gold medal game.

The U.S. automatically advance to Thursday’s Championship game in Boston, where Canada will hope to earn the rematch by beating Finland on Monday at 11:00 a.m. in Boston at TD Garden. A regulation win against Finland would see Canada advance to the Final regardless of a Sweden victory to the head-to-head tiebreak the Canadians hold over them from their 4-3 overtime result on Thursday in the tournament opener.

"Just excited," McDavid added about Monday's meeting with Finland. "Another opportunity for us to go get a big win."

Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm and winger Viktor Arvidsson's Sweden were defeated 4-3 in OT by Finland earlier in the day and need a regulation win over the United States on Monday to have any shot at making the Final.