United States looks ‘to keep this thing rolling’ following win against Canada

MONTREAL -- The United States has not achieved its main objective in the 4 Nations Face-Off, yet.

The U.S. did take an important step, though, with an impressive 3-1 victory against rival Canada at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Beyond the significance of going into a hostile environment and defeating its biggest rival for the first time in a best-on-best competition since the preliminary round of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the U.S. clinched a spot in the tournament final on Thursday regardless of the result of its final round-robin game against Sweden at TD Garden in Boston on Monday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS).

“We're definitely going to enjoy it today,” forward Brady Tkachuk said. “It's exciting to guarantee to be in Thursday, but we still have a big one Monday. I guess it can be easy to get complacent, but this group, I don't even think it's going to get in our mind that we're happy with where we're at. I think we know what's at stake here.

“We know what our goal has been right from the start, and I don't think we're going to stop until we get it.”

Following up on a 6-1 win against Finland in its opener on Thursday by knocking off Canada in a tight-checking game Saturday, the U.S. is the only team in the tournament to win its first two games. Intent on sending a message from the drop of the puck, the U.S. was involved in three fights in the opening nine seconds.

First, forward Matthew Tkachuk fought Brandon Hagel off the opening face-off, followed by brother Brady Tkachuk fighting Sam Bennett on the next face-off. Then, U.S. forward J.T. Miller fought Canada defenseman Colton Parayko at nine seconds.

Although Canada took a 1-0 lead on Connor McDavid’s breakaway goal at 5:31, the U.S. was undeterred. After getting beaten by McDavid on his breakaway goal, defenseman Charlie McAvoy got a small measure of revenge by flattening McDavid with a big hit to the chest at 9:49. Jake Guentzel tied it for the U.S. 26 seconds later by beating Canada goalie Jordan Binnington between the pads from the left circle.

Dylan Larkin finished a 2-on-1 rush to give the U.S. a 2-1 lead at 13:33 of the second period and it shifted into a defensive mode, stifling Canada over the remainder of the game.

Guentzel clinched the victory with an empty-net goal with 1:19 remaining.

“It’s huge,” Guentzel said. “I think we wanted to win this game. We’re kind of thought of as the villain here. For us to come in here and get these two wins, I think that was big for us.”

The lone negative for the U.S. was Matthew Tkachuk did not play the final 12:36 because of a lower-body injury. Tkachuk downplayed the injury, though, saying he had, “no concern at all,” and with a spot in the final already locked up, the U.S. has the luxury of being able to sit him out Monday, if it chooses, so he has more time to recover.

With or without Matthew Tkachuk, though, the U.S. doesn’t want to take its foot off the gas Monday.

“We came here to try to win the championship,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We feel like we’ve got a good team. We believe in this group. We think we’ve got a terrific hockey team. Having said that, so does Canada, and Sweden and Finland. So, as we’ve said to our players all along, nothing’s inevitable in this game.

“The greatest thing about our sport is you’ve got to earn it every night and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to earn it every single day.”

The U.S. players have done that by putting their egos aside and accepting whatever role is asked of them. Larkin is a perfect example.

A first-line player that plays on the power play for the Detroit Red Wings, Larkin began this tournament on the fourth line for the U.S. and has not played on the power play. Larkin moved up to center the third line against Canada and scored the biggest goal of the tournament so far.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the group to this point,” Sullivan said. “They’ve been incredibly receptive of the coaching staff and the things that we’ve been trying to introduce to them and how we’re trying to play. … Every guy in the conversations that I’ve had with them -- and I’ve had a lot of them with a lot of our guys over the last four, five days about roles and how we’re trying to deploy these guys -- and their response to a man has been, ‘Whatever it takes coach. Whatever it takes. We just want to win.’”

That commitment has paid off for the U.S. so far. Its players won’t be satisfied unless they lift the championship trophy after the final on Thursday, but they appreciated what they achieved Saturday.

“Especially tonight before the game, we kind of knew that we could clinch a spot in the finals if we won in regulation, and we did just that,” defenseman Zach Werenski said. “So, I think that’s a great step for us. Obviously, a big game Monday against Sweden. We want to keep this thing rolling and play the right way, but definitely nice to know that we’re going to be in the finals on Thursday.”