U.S., Canada gearing up for intense rematch in 4 Nations Face-Off final

BOSTON -- Canada calls it “our game.” The United States says it’s “our time.”

We’ll see.

The 4 Nations Face-Off is down to two.

With a 5-3 win against Finland at TD Garden on Monday, Canada clinched a spot in the championship game against the United States here Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS). It’ll be a rematch of the emotional, physical 3-1 U.S. win at Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday.

“I think you’re going to see two really evenly matched teams go at it,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said. “The city of Boston will be treated to something special, I think, on Thursday.”

Canada has won nine of the 13 best-on-best tournaments ever played, including five of the past six and the past three in a row. Rogers posted ads all over Montreal featuring star center Connor McDavid and a message: “NOTRE ÉQUIPE. NOTRE SPORT.” English translation: “OUR TEAM. OUR GAME.”

The United States has won one best-on-best tournament, the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, defeating Canada 2-1 in a best-of-3 final. Forward Matthew Tkachuk said the Americans wanted to send their own message when they picked three fights with the Canadians in the first nine seconds Saturday: “It’s our time right now.”

“I didn’t hear him say that,” Canada goalie Jordan Binnington said. “But he’s trying to make some noise, which he likes to do, and we’re just going to stick to our job here and focus on one game at a time, one period at a time.”

This is a fitting matchup that has been building for a long time.

The United States failed to defeat Canada in the gold-medal game of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. But hockey has been growing in the United States.

In the 4 Nations Face-Off, the first best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey 2016 in Toronto, the Americans have the talent and depth to compete with the Canadians.

And they showed it Saturday in a hostile environment in Montreal.

“Obviously, you look at the last game, the intensity,” Canada captain Sidney Crosby said. “Both teams got to know each other pretty well pretty quickly. Yeah, it’ll be a great challenge.”

The Americans didn’t just fight Saturday. They delivered big hits. After falling behind 1-0, they came back to take a 2-1 lead and smothered Canada’s attack before icing it with an empty-netter. The shots were 26-23, Canada.

“I just think they’re so dangerous,” Canada center Nathan MacKinnon said. “Not a lot was really going on for either team, and we kind of gave them a couple looks, and they have so much talent that they’re going to score. All the best players in the League are sharing the same ice, and the shots are, like, 20-20, so it just shows that how tight everyone’s checking right now.”

MacKinnon said the Canadians are ready for the rematch.

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

Cooper said the Canadians managed the puck better against Finland on Monday. It helped that they had Cale Makar, one of the best defensemen in the world, who sat out with an illness against the United States on Saturday.

“The U.S. is such a skilled team,” Makar said. “In that game especially [Saturday], they supported each other so well on the ice and then kind of broke us down in the neutral zone and then were able to get odd-man rushes a couple times. Those are just little things that we’ve got to maybe clean up.”

Finland coach Antti Pennanen was asked for the key to the championship game. He might have thought he was asked for the favorite. He said it was hard to say, because both teams are so good.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe it’s USA.”

Is Canada the underdog? Are the Canadians motivated by the rematch? Cooper made it clear they felt confident and want to win no matter the opponent, though the opponent adds drama.

“We came here for this purpose, and now it’s win one more game,” he said. “It just happens to be against the team that beat us after the fireworks that went off on Saturday night, so I think it should be a pretty good made-for-TV event.”