NHL 4 Nations Face-Off 2025: Winners and Losers From USA vs. Canada

The two most talented teams in the Four Nations Face-Off battled, so the hype was real. If you’re a fan of the United States, the night ended with a massive 3-1 victory that clinched a spot in the Final and left the home fans feeling distraught.

There were fights, there were big hits, there were goals, there were clutch performances and there was plenty to learn from.

The Americans used the stifling forecheck that gave Finland fits and frustrated Canada’s best efforts to use their super-skilled star players to open the game up. When they did, however, Connor Hellebuyck was there to snuff out all but one of Canada’s 25 shots on goal.

"I just think it's very indicative of what this means to the players," United States coach Mike Sullivan said. "There's two teams out there that are very competitive that have a ton of pride for their respective teams and countries. For me when you have an investment in trying to win like the way that it occurred, I think that's an indication of it. What an incredible hockey game."

It was the kind of defeat Canada has not had in a best-on-best tournament in a very long time, and for the United States, it’s a program-emboldening victory in a hostile environment.

There are winners and losers to break down from a game that lived up to its billing.

Raise your hand if you thought you’d see a fight off the opening faceoff tonight.

OK, a couple of you, I see you, but did you think there’d be three fights in the opening 10 seconds of the game? No, you didn’t, there’s not a chance. If you’re a fan that loves the “Slap Shot” or “Shoresy” way to play hockey, you were losing your dang mind immediately.

Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel got it going on the opening draw that got the sold-out Bell Center roaring. On the next face-off, it was Brady Tkachuk and Sam Bennett tossing haymakers at each other, because if Matthew was going to duke it out, Brady would, too. Six seconds after that when an actual puck got on net and the play stopped, J.T. Miller gave Colton Parayko a cross-check and dropped the gloves. Parayko obliged and their tussle had the fans in Montréal going mad.

"There was a little discussion during the day," Brady Tkachuk said. "There was a group chat going on today. It just kind of reaffirmed that we were going to do that. Matthew's fight to start it off was such an energy boost, I think. I was more excited and more nervous at my own, and then Millsy to cap it off to go against a big guy like that, I think he did a great job. I think it all speaks for itself."

Fights don’t win games, but fights set the tone, and, boy, was the tone ever set for this game.

"I think the message we wanted to send is 'It's our time,'" Matthew Tkachuk said. "We're in a hostile environment, and we wanted to show that we're not backing down. They've had so much success over so many years over there. They're some of the best players in the world. We felt in this environment it was a good time to do it. It was a lot of fun. You've got to give credit to those guys, as well. They did the exact same thing that we did. I thought it was great energy from both sides, and the building was shaking after the third one."

The hits were hard, the game was blazingly fast, and it got everyone on and off the ice emotionally involved at an even higher level than they were to start. Whether you love or hate the fights, that they happened made sense cosmically—even if they were illogical.

The biggest question heading into the Four Nations Face-Off for Canada was who their No. 1 goalie would be. With Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Sam Montembeault to pick from, it was Binnington who won the job. A tough overtime win over Sweden calmed things down a bit, but the two goals he allowed to the United States fired up the debate once again.

Jake Guentzel’s shot to the short side near the net found a way through, and Dylan Larkin’s wired shot on a 2-on-1 managed to elude him and put the U.S. ahead ultimately for good. When the initial reaction to a goal allowed is a grimace and a groan, that’s when things are in a bad place.

“I can’t sit here and say he was fighting it,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said. “Jake Guentzel plays for me and Binnington knew it was coming, I knew it was coming, I’ve seen that goal a thousand times and Jake Guentzel still finds a way to score those goals. Pucks have eyes for some players, it has eyes for him. Any goaltender wants to have them all back, but I think he’s being a little hard on himself to be honest.”

Cooper is going to go to bat for his guys no matter what and keeping the temperature down on his goalie who started the first two games is wise, especially if they plan to play him against Finland to try and secure a spot in the final. But with Hill having also won a Stanley Cup and waiting in the wings, a change would make sense and stir up a hornet’s nest of controversy for Canada’s management.

Even though Canada has a mega-all-star lineup and can weather just about any injury or absence, losing Shea Theodore to injury was one thing, but going without Cale Makar because of an illness was a gut shot against the United States.

We can’t help but wonder how this game would have gone with Makar back there pushing the pace and creating from the back end, as opposed to putting Travis Sanheim and Thomas Harley into their first games of the tournament under the brightest of lights. Even though Sanheim replaced Theodore, Harley was brought in just in case Makar couldn’t go. While he’s also an outstanding player, there’s only one Cale Makar.

“I can't say what the outlook is right now,” Cooper said. “Naturally, he was close to playing in tonight's game. But ultimately the decision was made for him not to play. And those decisions are made for the benefit of the player. Everybody wants to play and contribute and do all these things. And trust me, he's the one that wants to do it the most. But it wasn't tonight. And so, we'll see. Hopefully Monday. But there's no determination on that yet.”

The stifling effort of the United States made the Canadians work doubly hard to make anything happen. Canada's top six did all that they could, going mano-y-mano against them. But things went sideways for Canada when their bottom six forwards took their turns out on the ice.

The Lightning trio of Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel had a hard time enough that Cooper eventually moved Point away from the others and with Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid to get a spark. The line with Brad Marchand, Seth Jarvis and Sam Bennett saw limited time but struggled to have an impact apart from a few heavy hits thrown by Bennett.

Canada’s depth is extremely good and there’s nothing to take away from any of those players, but against the United States in this game, it looked like a team with 12 forwards working in sync had their way against six guys playing well and six others just trying to keep up.

Even still, some of the players in the top six had head-scratching moments. Crosby turned the puck over which led to Larkin’s go-ahead goal. Mitch Marner got moved around because it wasn’t working with McDavid, and he didn’t fare much better with Nathan MacKinnon. Canada worked hard, but they were fighting an uphill battle with half their forward group unable to contribute more consistently.

After Finland’s 4-3 overtime win against Sweden in Saturday’s early game, it locked them in with two points and in a tie with Sweden. The best thing they could’ve hoped for in the Canada-USA tilt was a USA win in regulation and their wish was granted.

The Americans' win locks them into a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off title game on Thursday in Boston, but Canada getting no points out of the game against the U.S. means their game against Finland could determine who faces the United States in the final.

In such a short tournament, every game is a do-or-die matchup and now with Sweden, Finland and Canada all even up with two points in the standings, things could get spicy on Monday.

“It’s kind of like a Game 7,” McDavid said. “A lot of guys in this room have been in that situation before. Got to get a win.”

Finland got a boost from Kevin Lankinen in net to beat Sweden and Mikael Granlund’s overtime winner set the table for them to enter Monday’s game with a lot of confidence. They’ll need Mikko Rantanen to bring the same kind of intense, physical play he had versus the Swedes against Canada as well.

"Huge game for us, of course,” Finland coach Antti Pennanen said. “These games are so high-level games, as we saw today. Lots of good players on the ice and well-coached teams, so it's going to be a huge battle for us and I'm excited."

Sweden will need to beat the United States in regulation to have a puncher's chance of reaching the final because they do not have the tiebreaker against Canada or Finland because of their overtime losses to both. Then they’ll need Finland-Canada to go to overtime so the winner only gets two points instead of three.

Every NHL team fears injuries more than anything else in this tournament.

Shea Theodore’s upper-body injury will have a massive impact on the Vegas Golden Knights after he was injured against Sweden and now the Florida Panthers may have to hold their breath on the status of Matthew Tkachuk.

Tkachuk didn’t play the final 12 minutes of the third period against Canada and even though he spoke with media following the win, American coach Mike Sullivan sounded a bit hesitant about his status for the game on Monday and possibly for the title game Thursday.

"Matthew is out with a lower-body injury right now. he's being evaluated by our doctors,” Sullivan said. “That's all I can offer you. We'll make decisions that we think is best for Matthew and we think is best for our team. Right now, I don't have a lot of information to go on so it's hard for me to give you more."

It’s not what anyone wants to see, but with how hard the players are competing, injuries are almost inevitable. Everyone in Florida and in the United States will have their fingers crossed that Tkachuk will be OK, but this is what can happen, you just really hate to see it though.