The 4 Nations Face-Off tournament kicked off yesterday with a thrilling contest. Sweden rallied for a pair of two-goal deficits to force overtime against Canada. The home country, but road team in this contest, prevailed 4-3 on Mitch Marner’s game-winner. Tonight, the US plays their first game, taking on Finland in Boston.
Canada 4 Sweden 3, overtime: You almost couldn’t ask for a better start to the tournament. Canada opened the game like they were going to blow the doors open against the Swedes, tallying a Nathan MacKinnon PPG less than a minute in, off a ridiculous tic-tac-toe between McDavid, Crosby and MacKinnon followed by a second marker off a 2-on-1 by Brad Marchand.
Sweden started limiting Canada’s time and space in the neutral zone via increasing their physical play. Jonas Brodin made it 2_1 in the second off a partially screened, bad angle shot. They had Canada on their heels before a drop pass from Sidney Crosby to a rushing Mark Stone resulted in a 3-1 lead.
In the third, Sweden really picked up the pace. A quick release wrist shot through a d-man screen by Adrian Kempe made it 3-2. Joel Eriksson Ek tied the game at 3 from the side of the net slightly before the midway point of the third, stunning the crowd.
The next 11 minutes of the third saw a healthy number of chances. But the 3x3, 10-minute overtime was phenomenal back and forth hockey. Sweden looked to have the better of play for a majority of it, but Marner wrist shot of yet another Crosby feed decided matters.
Mika Zibanejad had a decent game. Some have taken him to task for not marking Stone coming into the zone? Though that was likely William Nylander’s man. He had a solid game between the dots and was robbed at least twice by Jordan Binnington, who was great during the contest. Zib looked to have some jump in his step and power behind his slap shot, the latter lacking during the season. Putting on the Tre Kroner has certainly agreed with him.
One down note to the game was the loss of Shea Theodore to injury. He is week to week with an upper body injury, which is likely to his wrist. Travis Sanheim is the extra d-man but Canada is reportedly trying to skirt the rules and add another blueliner.
4 Nations Face-Off schedule:
Tonight the US plays Finland. As mentioned the other day, three of the four members of the US team will be in action.
JT Miller looks to be the pivot on the third trio, flanked by Brady Tkachuk and Matt Boldy. Vincent Trocheck is centering the fourth line between Dylan Larkin and Brock Nelson. Chris Kreider, who likely would have been off the squad if the nominations occurred a month later, is the 13th forward. My guess is based on how coach Mike Sullivan spoke about Kreider, he gets I before too long. Adam Fox is on the first defensive pair opposite Jaccob Slavin.
Kaapo Kakko will be the healthy forward scratch for Finland on Thursday night. Urho Vaakanainen, a last-minute addition to Finland’s roster as an injury replacement for Miro Heiskanen, will dress and play on the third d-pairing.
Get ready for some INTERNATIONAL, BEST-ON-BEST HOCKEY #4Nations begins Wednesday night on TNT, with Canada vs. Finland. One-hour pregame begins at 7pmET pic.twitter.com/zaoHlxlQMQ
Brennan Othmann, now fully healthy, is certainly pushing for a promotion. He notched the game tying and game-winning goals Wednesday. Othmann has nine points his last 11 games.
#NYR prospect Brennan Othmann (R1, 2021) takes it up the ice by himself and calls GAME!
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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