Bring on the Finns

MILAN — A hockey-crazed nation exhales.

The star-studded Canadian men’s team stood on the brink of a stunning Olympic quarterfinal exit Wednesday — only to engineer a dramatic, Games-saving rally that guarantees a shot at a medal.

Put down the pitchforks. Call off the national summit. Take a deep breath.

“Massive relief. Extreme excitement,” said forward Brad Marchand, who may as well have been speaking for more than 41 million citizens back home.

“We came here with a goal in mind. In these tournaments, it can end on a bounce.”

Fortunately for Canada, the final few went its way.

Winnipegger Seth Jarvis played a role in the comeback, getting in on the forecheck and making a crisp pass to defenceman Devon Toews, whose shot was tipped by Nick Suzuki to tie the game 3-3 with just 3:27 remaining in the third period.

“Just kind of a lot of joy. I wanted to do something to help the team, so it was obviously a big goal to tie it up and send it to overtime,” said Suzuki — a player many puck pundits and critics had suggested perhaps shouldn’t even be playing on this team.

“Great play by Jarvy to get open for me and get it up. Toewser gave me a perfect opportunity to tip it. Just trying to put something on net there.”

Jarvis was a last-minute addition due to an injury to Brayden Point and once again played in front of his six best buddies who made the trip to Milan. He clearly earned the trust of head coach Jon Cooper, skating nearly 12 minutes.

“We’ve got a bunch of guys who have been here before,” said Jarvis. “We have a bunch of great leaders, so I think we did a really good job just leaning on them, keeping our composure and just knowing our opportunities would come and then capitalized.”

That set the stage for Mitch Marner’s spectacular winner just 1:22 into three-on-three overtime, which was set to last 10 minutes before a shootout, if necessary. He took a pass from the sensational Macklin Celebrini, who had scored earlier in regulation, and made a dazzling move to beat Czechia goaltender Lukas Dostal.

“Pretty special. Cool to just contribute and make a play when you need it,” said Marner. “There’s so many big plays in that game that made it what it is.”

Two of them came from starting goaltender Jordan Binnington, who is enduring a difficult NHL season but once again found another gear on the international stage. One was a breakaway stop on Martin Necas late in regulation to preserve the tie. The other came in the opening minute of overtime — a point-blank slot save just before Marner’s dagger.

“He’s a gamer. We knew that from the 4 Nations (Face-Off). It’s not just a one-and-done, when big games come around, Jordan Binnington comes around,” said forward Brandon Hagel.

“A tremendous goalie. He’s fun to watch.”

Nathan MacKinnon had Canada’s other goal, a power-play tally in the second period which erased a 2-1 deficit.

“It was obviously emotional, nerve-wracking and I’m glad we got the win,” said MacKinnon.

“I think it’s good to have a little adversity like this. You know, a humbling, hard game. We won our first games — 5-0, 5-1, 10-2 — so it’s good to have a little adversity and keep us a little more humble maybe.”

Canada now advances to Friday’s semifinal against Finland (9:40 a.m. CT). Czechia heads home empty-handed despite a valiant underdog effort.

“The group is super comfortable being uncomfortable. And that’s what it is. It was calm,” said Cooper.

“Everybody had complete faith in whoever was going over the boards, it just felt it was like a matter of time, it was going to happen.”

Maybe not quite everyone.

Defenceman Drew Doughty admitted some doubt began to creep in as the clock wound down. Despite Canada controlling play for long stretches, Czechia grabbed a 3-2 lead with just under eight minutes left — despite having six skaters on the ice, which went undetected by officials.

Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be?

“You can’t entirely avoid it. You believe… you look down the bench and you see the players we have on our team, and you know no one’s going to quit, and we have a great chance of coming back,” said Doughty, who has two Olympic gold medals and two Stanley Cups on his resumé.

“But as the time keeps ticking, you’re like, ‘Holy f—k… this isn’t an ideal.’ But I never stopped believing. And look what happened. That was amazing. I can’t even explain a feeling like that.”

Not to rain on the Canadian parade, but the thrill of victory came with a cost. Captain Sidney Crosby suffered a lower-body injury early in the second period and did not return. He was hit by Czech defenceman Radko Gudas, his right leg bending in a way limbs are not meant to.

“Unfortunately, the game goes on no matter who gets hurt. We even mentioned going out before the third, ‘Let’s try to win this one for 87.’ Glad we did,” said Doughty.

Cooper didn’t have a post-game update on Crosby, who addressed the team during the second intermission.

“I think that was a big thing. You know, if we lose this game, we didn’t want this to be Sid’s last game at this Olympics. So it was a big motivator for the guys coming out,” said Cooper.

Canada is already without Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey, who missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury suffered in the opening group contest against Czechia.

Morrissey was a full participant in Tuesday’s practice and appeared close to a return, but a decision was made to hold him out at least one more game.

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Fortunately for Morrissey and his teammates there now is a tomorrow.

Cooper believes the adversity may prove invaluable.

“That’s the great thing is about this tournament. This is the Olympic Games. This is the best of the best. This is why all the players want to come to this, because they want to show who they are, and they want to flex. And if you think you’re rolling through this tournament, you’re sorely mistaken,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean because you got the Maple Leaf on your jersey that, ‘Hey, oh my gosh, you’re gonna be first.’ You’ve got to work to that. And the guys in there know it. So we came here to play six games. We’ve played four. We’ve gotten better in four, and we’re going to get better in game five. And that’s the mission this group is on.”

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Mike McIntyre
Sports columnist

Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.

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