Montreal Canadiens' captain Nick Suzuki will play in the gold medal game on Sunday with Team Canada after Finland gave them a good scare.
If Team Canada faced little opposition in the preliminary round, the same cannot be said about the playoff round. After needing overtime to overcome Czechia in the quarterfinals, Canada had to come back from behind against Finland to book its place in Sunday morning’s gold medal game.
The Canadians didn’t make it easy on themselves, even if they had said they needed a stronger start than they did against Czechia. They first took a too-many-men penalty in the first, perhaps to test if the referees knew how to count to six for that semifinal after the quarterfinal controversy. There was no harm done, but later in the first frame, after Juuse Saros had made a routine save, Sam Bennett inexplicably decided to skate right into the goaltender, earning himself a minor penalty on which the Finns scored through Mikko Rantanen.
Early in the second, Canada had a chance to come back when Sebastian Aho was sanctioned for interference, but things didn’t go as planned. Cale Makar’s shot from the blueline was blocked by former Hab Joel Armia, who sent the puck to Erik Haula, who took off. He beat Jordan Binnington on the breakaway for a shorthanded goal that brought the score to 2-0. Later in the period, Canada didn’t miss its opportunity when Anton Lundell took two minutes for high-sticking, Sam Reinhart tipped Makar’s shot to beat Saros, and gave a bit of life back to the Canada fans in attendance.
The Finns did their best to hang on, but, as Canada’s women's team did on Thursday, they tried to defend and let their opponent attack over and over. Eventually, halfway through the third, it paid off, and Shea Theodore beat Saros with a booming shot. With the score tied at 2-2, Niko Mikkola’s stick hit Nathan MacKinnon in the face, and while it took some time for the referees to call the penalty, it was the right call, even if the Finnish Flash himself, Teemu Selanne, didn't agree. With mere seconds left to the man-advantage, it was MacKinnon himself who buried the game-winner with assists from Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini. Finland challenged the goal for an offside that would have happened over a minute earlier, but the challenge was unsuccessful, a scare that felt all too familiar for Habs fans.
Without captain Sidney Crosby, who was unable to play following the injury he sustained at the end of Radko Gudas on Wednesday, Montreal Canadiens’ captain Nick Suzuki found himself filling in for the legend, centring Mitch Marner and Mark Stone. The centerman spent 14:36 on the ice and won five of the 10 faceoffs he took. With 35 seconds left in regulation, he was the center delegated by coach Jon Cooper to take the neutral zone draw and protect Canada’s precarious 3-2 lead.
Suzuki and Team Canada will now take on the winner of the other semifinal on Sunday at 8:10 AM ET. It will either be Juraj Slafkovsky and Slovakia or a rematch of the 4 Nations Face-Off final against Team USA. We’ll find out in a few hours as the puck drops on that game at 3:10 PM ET this afternoon.
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