Marner Scores Overtime Winner, Canada Defeats Sweden in 4 Nations Opener

MONTREAL — Over 20,000 were in attendance at the Bell Centre on Wednesday night to watch a nail biting Canada and Sweden game to open the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. 

If you only tuned in for the opening 20, you would think Canada ran away with the contest, but that was far from the case. 

Sweden overcame a two-goal deficit in the third to force overtime, where Canada ultimately prevailed thanks to Mitch Marner’s game winning goal. 

Before a puck was dropped, the energy in the building was through the roof. Boos rained down for team USA, and Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews — who was brought out alongside Finnish captain Aleksander Barkov, Hockey Hall of Famer Teemu Selanee and Stanley Cup champion Mike Richter pregame — while a standing ovation was held for one of the greatest players of all-time, Montreal native Mario Lemieux.

“The ovation for Mario to start, that was pretty cool,” Canadian captain Sidney Crosby said of the atmosphere in the arena.. “Just the crowd — coming out for warmups, the anticipation through the whole overtime… It was a lot of fun to play in a game like that.”

Fans in downtown Montreal were amped up to get this game going and so were the Canadian players. 

It took Canada just 56 seconds to score the first goal of the tournament, thanks to a pair of guys from Nova Scotia.

On an early power play, Canadian captain Sidney Crosby fed a behind the back pass to fellow Cole Harbour, N.S. native Nathan MacKinnon, who beat Swedish goalie Filip Gustavsson on the first shot of the game. 

As the captain of the Boston Bruins, Brad Marchand is, more often than not, welcomed to Montreal with relentless boo. Now that he’s once again wearing a Canadian jersey, Marchand was no longer public enemy No. 1 at the Bell Centre. 

Marchand doubled Canada’s lead 13:15 into the first and it was followed by an enthusiastic cheer from the Montreal crowd.

Canada overwhelmed Sweden in the first; not giving up a shot on goal until 15:15 of the period, while already holding a 2-0 lead. 

With the game not completely tilted Canada’s way in the second, Sweden began generating more chances in the offensive zone. Midway through the period, the Swedes finally broke through. 

Jonas Brodin fired a shot up and over Jordan Binnington’s shoulder to finally get Sweden on the scoresheet. 

With a goal on the board, Sweden began its pushback on the Canadians. Looking more comfortable in the offensive zone, an equalizer appeared to be on the way. 

And then Sidney Crosby said no.

Already with a primary assist on the first goal of the game, Captain Canada made another great play to set up Mark Stone, who doubled Canada’s lead. 

Swedish defenseman Gustav Forsling made a good play to not allow Crosby to cut towards the goal off the rush, however Crosby still found a way, spinning off the pressure before hitting Stone in the slot, who made it a 3-1 game with a five-hole goal. 

“He will go down as the greatest player to represent his country,” Canada head coach Jon Cooper said of Crosby. 

Everytime Canada looked to have the game in control, Sweden showed they weren’t out of the fight. 

Adrian Kempe got the Swedes back to within one, beating Binnington blocker side 1:54 into the third. 

Sweden kept up their pursuit for an equalizer and with just over 11 minutes to go in regulation., they found it.

Jesper Bratt found Joel Erikkson Ek sitting unmarked backdoor, and there was just too much time and space for the Minnesota Wild forward not to capitalize. Before the midway point of the third, Sweden had scored two unanswered goals to tie the game at 3-3.

“We knew that they were going to give us a good push,” said Canadian defenseman Cale Makar. “Obviously it’s an unreal team.We need to up our game at the beginning there, I think they surprised us a little bit.

The score remained tied through regulation, giving both teams a much needed point in this round-robin tournament — a regulation win gives you three points, an overtime/shootout win is two points, overtime/shootout loss is one and a regulation loss is zero points. 

In the extra frame, Mitch Marner scored the game winner to give Canada the extra point, making it another rare moment where the Bell Centre crowd cheers for a Montreal Canadiens’ rival, this time being a Toronto Maple Leaf.

Crosby picked up his third primary assist of the night on Marner’s winner.

“I was on the bench when he scored,” Crosby said smiling. “He did all the work.”

The Canadians will be back in action at the Bell Centre on Saturday at 8 ET to take on the Americans in what’s sure to be another great game between the two nations. Sweden will face their own rival, Finland, on Saturday at 1 ET. 

GAME NOTES

Forward Sam Bennett, defenseman Travis Sanheim and goaltender Samuel Montembeault were healthy scratches for Canada.

Forward Lucas Carlsson, defenseman Rasmus Andersson and goaltender Samuel Ersson were healthy scratches for Sweden.

Canada defenseman Shea Theodore left the game in the second period after being on the receiving end of a hit from Adrian Kempe. Theodore did not return to the game with an apparent shoulder injury. Jon Cooper confirmed postgame that Theodore is out for the tournament.