Montreal Canadiens' captain Nick Suzuki rescued Team Canada today, tying up the game in the last few minutes of regulation to send the game to overtime. Mitch Marner then scored the game-winner, allowing Canada to defeat a tough Czech team.
If there was talk of taking the Montreal Canadiens’ captain, Nick Suzuki, out of the lineup for Canada’s quarterfinal game against Czechia, John Cooper must be thanking his lucky star that he didn’t do it.
In a game that most believed would be easy for Canada, the Czechs put on quite a fight and pushed Canada to the limit. After 20 minutes of play, the underdogs had a 2-1 lead. Early in the second frame, Sidney Crosby ducked on a Radko Gudas hit, which meant the heavyweight fell on top of him, and the Pittsburgh Penguins captain had to leave the game.
Without its captain, the Canadians elevated their play and pressed on, eventually finding the game-tying goal on the power play through Nathan MacKinnon. Suzuki then had a golden opportunity to put Canada ahead from a tight angle, a goal he regularly scores with the Canadiens, and he hit the post.
In the third frame, with just 7:42 left to go, Ondrej Palat put Czechia back on top 3-2, and it looked like the Czechs may pull off the upset, until Suzuki got a chance at redemption. With less than four minutes left in regulation and his linemates heading off to the bench, he pressed on in the offensive zone, recovered the puck, passed it to Seth Jarvis, who sent it to Devon Toews at the point, who unleashed a rocket which Suzuki deflected past Lukas Dostal. Jordan Binnington had to make a big save on Martin Necas on the breakaway with barely a minute left, but he pulled it off.
Tied 3-3 after 60 minutes, Cooper opted for his big guns to start the overtime period with MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, and Cale Makar taking the first faceoff, but they couldn’t find the back of the net. Canada then sent out Mitch Marner, Macklin Celebrin, and Thomas Harley on the ice, and Marner was able to walk in and beat Dostal with a sublime backhand.
Marner, the player who was vilified in Toronto for not performing well when it counted the most, won one game in overtime for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, then set up the overtime game-winner of the tournament final, and just saved Canada’s Olympic hopes.
Macklin Celibrini had a fantastic game, picking up three points, and he is now the second-highest scorer of the tournament with nine points in four games, behind McDavid, who has 11.
Postgame, Canadian coach Cooper said:
When the country needed a goal, Nick Suzuki answered.
Without Crosby, Suzuki inherited his spot and played most of the game at center. He skated for 14:19 mostly between Marner and Mark Stone and put on a great performance. Of course, there was that post, and he was on the ice when the Czech scored their third goal in the third frame, but he had just made a big play to recover puck possession in the offensive zone and wasn't responsible for the blocked shot that led to play going the other way. Furthermore, the replay showed that there were actually six Czechs on the ice when the goal was scored.
Canada won’t know who they’ll face in the semi-final on Friday until the other two quarter-finals are over, but it cannot be Slovakia.
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