Canada Wins Four Nations Faceoff

 Team Canada wins the first-ever Four Nations Faceoff tournament, defeating the USA 3-2 in overtime in an epic championship battle for the ages. 

This one began with Nathan MacKinnon scoring the first goal of the championship early in the opening period for Team Canada. Later in the first period, Auston Matthews sets up Brady Tkachuk, who scores to tie the game at one. 

The USA gained its first lead of the championship game early in the second period on a goal via Jake Sanderson. Later in the middle frame, Sam Bennett went top shelf to tie it at two for Canada. The golden goal to win the Four Nations trophy came in overtime via Connor McDavid to win it all on the biggest stage for the Canadians. 

Connor Hellebuyck recorded 24 saves on 27 shots for the USA, while Jordan Binnington registered 31 saves on 33 shots for Canada. In addition, Nathan MacKinnon was named the Four Nations Faceoff MVP, scoring a total of four goals throughout this tournament. 

Other notable highlights from the Four Nations Tournament leading up to this point: The opening game of this tournament between Sweden and Canada produced some fireworks, beginning with Canada's top line of Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and Nathan MacKinnon combining to score the first goal of the showcase. This first game resulted in a game-winning goal by Mitch Marner in overtime to defeat Sweden 4-3. The second game of this tournament between the USA and Finland resulted in a 6-1 blowout victory for the Americans, fueled by two goals each from Matthew and Brady Tkachuk. It was also great to see former Sharks forward Mikael Granlund score the game-winning goal in overtime in Finland's 4-3 win over Sweden in the third game of this tournament on Saturday. Later that evening generated the most epic and anticipated matchup prior to today's final between the US and Canada, which began with three fights in the first nine seconds. These three fights began with a tilt between Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel, followed by ones featuring Brady Tkachuk and Sam Bennett, and lastly between J.T. Miller and Colton Parayko. The Americans took this highly-anticipated rivalry matchup by a score of 3-1 on two goals from Jake Guentzel and one from Dylan Larkin to punch their ticket to the championship. In addition, the only goal scored by Canada in this big game in particular was a highlight-reel tally by none other than Connor McDavid. 

Overall, this is not the end result I and many others wanted, but it was an all-around incredible international best-on-best tournament. My initial expectations were somewhat low prior to the start of this tournament, but it certainly did not disappoint one bit. In fact, the Four Nations Faceoff tournament was a big win in helping grow the game of hockey in the US, especially since it had average Americans who generally don’t watch hockey talking about it. I watched most of the games that went down during this tournament, and they were absolutely better than a traditional all-star game. I prefer international best-on-best tournaments over traditional all-star games going forward, and I am looking forward to seeing what’s in store for the remainder of the 2024-25 NHL season and international best-on-best hockey in the coming years. 

Sources: ESPN, NHL App 

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