Canada beats Finland and secures its spot in the final

It was Jordan Binnington who got the start, and one has to wonder if in the locker room, the Canadian players told themselves they needed to score quickly to give him a lead.

Because that’s exactly what happened.

Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon scored in turn within the first five minutes of the game to allow the Maple Leaf to take the upper hand against Finland.

The big players of Canada showed up to play:

You could really feel that the Canadians wanted to send a message to their opponents at the start of the game.

Right after MacKinnon’s goal, Sam Reinhart delivered a big shoulder check to Mikko Rantanen:

Canada really took control of the game, and it showed in the last ten minutes of the first period.

But when I said that the big players of Canada showed up to play… It wasn’t a joke.

Brayden Point found the back of the net with just over seven minutes left on the clock, and Connor McDavid picked up his second point of the match.

3-0 Canada (already!):

If everything worked for Canada in the first period… We can say they managed to start things off right at the beginning of the second period.

Nathan MacKinnon scored his second goal of the match while positioned in the slot.

He took advantage of a pass from his buddy, Sidney Crosby, to fool the Finnish goaltender.

MacKinnon also ended Kevin Lankinen’s night:

In the first 40 minutes of the match, Connor McDavid was everywhere on the ice.

He almost allowed Canada to take a 5-0 lead:

In the third period, we saw Finland wake up a bit… But it was already too late.

Esa Lindell cut the deficit to 4-1 with just under seven minutes to play:

Finland was never really in the game in the end… Except at the end of the match.

Mikael Granlund scored two late goals to bring hope back to Finland.

With just over a minute to play, it was 4-3 for Canada…

But Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net, and Canada won the match by a score of 5-3.

Connor McDavid finished the match with two points (one goal and one assist), just like Nathan MacKinnon (two goals).

Overtime

Canada thus secures its spot in the final.

They will face the United States on Thursday night in a match that will be held in Boston.

The crowd is likely to be loud… And it promises to be a really thrilling match!

Until then, note that the Americans will be in action tonight.

They will face Sweden in their last preliminary match of the tournament.