The 4 Nations championship ended with as much suspense and entertainment any fan could ask for as Canada downed the USA 3-2 in overtime.

It’s a Team Game – Credit to the NHL for giving us international hockey back (after they took it away) because that was suspenseful, dramatic, and emotionally charged a performance as I have ever seen outside of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Canada and the USA both wanting nothing more than to simply see the other team lose – a pure rivalry. Canada got things underway when Nathan MacKinnon scored from the point after dazzling with some speed and hands to get off the wall and create a hole through traffic. The Americans started to lose grip of the game as the first went on, but were able to salvage it after Brady Tkachuk was able to whack home a centring pass. From there the flow of play at 5v5 levelled out – both teams still earning quality looks and capitalizing on them as well. Jake Sanderson found a loose puck to take a brief lead before Sam Bennett would roof it on a partial break to keep things locked up. Overtime started and the Canadians took control – pressing the Americans consistently just waiting for someone to miss an assignment. Auston Matthews then made one singular mistake and left McDavid alone for three seconds, but that was all it took for Canada to come out champions.

Corsi King – Jake Guentzel remained a great offensive threat from start to finish for this tournament. He never turned in a bad game and was extra feisty getting into shoving matches multiple times as the game went on. Auston Matthews (53.76 per cent) may have made the overtime mistake, but prior to that was a force for team USA. Jordan Binnington was forced to make consecutive top shelf saves because of Matthews late in the third period, coming close to ending things for the Americans,

Seth Jarvis (74.12 per cent) got to contribute every time he got called upon. He and Brad Marchand (73.55 per cent) were effective in the minutes they earned. Canada’s big guns allowed a few more chances than they were able to achieve.

Taken By Chance – One American player that opened eyes on forward was Dylan Larkin (28.89 SCF% || 51.12 HDCF%). All tournament long he was reliable and kept making the right move to maximize how dangerous and effective he could be. He and Zach Werenski (52.01 per cent || 36.40 per cent)) stood tall above most other American performances. If not for Hellebuyck’s existence than Werenski would have been the best player in the entire tournament.

Canada had a bit of an x-factor in this match they were missing in their first one. Cale Makar (70.11 per cent || 72.55 per cent) led the team with involvement in ten high danger chances at 5v5. He was consistently flying back towards the American net on the majority of his shifts. His speed was able to get the puck deep in the attacking zone with possession and allows for him to cover a lot of ice when defending. He was a force in this one.

xGF% – Due to some form of data collection issue the xG percentages are missing.

I was more critical of Jaccob Slavin than most after the first match. He had allowed a few high danger chances I felt were preventable – I was in the minority. His performance tonight, however, was nothing short of spectacular. His anticipation in his own zone to get in the way of shooting and passing lanes was the only answer Mike Sullivan had to trying to contain McDavid. That and blanket him with Jack Eichel – who showed the world maybe he should be getting some more Selke consideration. Eichel’s defensive game was at a level on par with Alex Barkov and was consistent enough to call him America’s best centre of the tournament.

Mitch Marner had himself a better game than the first time he played. The coach sensed that too and had him go back to playing with McDavid – a golden decision. McDavid struggled to make things happen all night long. His passes were slightly off target, he was a step ahead of the puck more often than he should have and genuinely looked discombobulated. None of that mattered after he slipped away from Matthews in the attacking zone to roof the game winning goal for his country.

In The Crease – Credit to Jordan Binnington. It may not have looked pretty, proper, or perfect but it was a championship performance anyways. He made the game more interesting for myself as there were multiple instances where Binnington’s positioning in relation to the Americans shots had my anxiety level spike to the literal maximum. Connor Hellebuyck was his usual dialed In self. MacKinnon getting his goal through traffic was the anomaly of this game – a rare hole from the best goaltender on the planet. There still may be questions around goaltending going forward, but Binnington has now earned the chance to defend his spot with the Olympics coming rapidly into focus.