BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Canada’s Connor McDavid scored 8:18 into overtime, propelling his national team to a 3-2 win over the United States in the championship game of the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday.
McDavid, the Edmonton Oilers star received Mitch Marner’s centering feed and buried a wrist shot from the slot to score the golden goal, his third tally of the tournament.
Marner assisted on Canada’s final two goals. Sam Bennett scored the tying marker with six minutes left in the second period.
Nathan MacKinnon’s tournament-leading fourth goal opened the scoring for Canada.
Jordan Binnington made 31 saves in the Canadian net, including six in overtime.
Binnington was spectacular while denying a U.S. surge early in the extra session, including a stop on Auston Matthews’ drive to the doorstep at 2:51. Less than two minutes later, the St. Louis Blues goalie stopped another Matthews shot, then saved Brady Tkachuk’s rebound chance.
Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson netted back-to-back goals to lead the U.S. out of an early 1-0 deficit. Matthews assisted on both.
U.S. goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stopped 24 shots.
It was the North American archrivals’ first best-on-best championship meeting since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics — also won by Canada 3-2 in overtime. The U.S. earned a 3-1 victory over Canada in the teams’ round-robin clash on Saturday in Montreal.
MacKinnon scored first 4:48 in, receiving Thomas Harley’s pass from the left point and curling into the slot to send a shot into heavy traffic and past Hellebuyck’s blocker.