‘We knew’: Canada tops Finland in last-minute thriller, goes for gold

MILAN — Team Canada will play for a medal, and it’s the good one. 

Whew. 

Another bullet ducked, another third-period comeback, another jolt of confidence.

Playing without injured captain Sidney Crosby, the still-stacked all-star squad fell down early to the pesky Team Finland but rallied with three unanswered (and two contested) goals to triumph 3-2 in the Olympic semifinals at Milano Santagiulia Arena.

Trouble started early Friday, when Canada committed a pair of unforced errors. First, a too-many-men penalty (they can call those here), then a poor decision by an overly aggressive Sam Bennett, who was sent to the box after crashing into Juuse Saros’s crease.

Mikko Rantanen lasered a puck on the ensuing power-play draw, and Canada found itself playing from behind for a second straight elimination game.

The Finns’ lead doubled in the second, when Erik Haula converted on a shorthanded breakaway, going backhand shelf on Jordan Binnington.

“It was our bad. We consider we gave them two freebies,” coach Jon Cooper said. “We’re stubbing our own toes.”

Perhaps learning from Wednesday’s highwire comeback against the Czechs, Canada found calm in knowing it had rallied to win already on this sheet. And it had time to tilt the scales.

“No panic,” Drew Doughty said.

“We understood we were in a tough spot, and we had to find a way to get out of it. And we did,” substitute captain Connor McDavid said. “Credit to us. But we can’t put ourselves in that spot again.”

Cooper tinkered with his lines, but Grade-A looks at even-strength were scarce. And the underdog Finns clamped up to protect their advantage as the Canadians began their press after 20 minutes. 

Finland guarded against Canada’s lightning counter rush and played things safe. Probably too safe.

“It’s hard not to. They’re pushing, they’re coming,” Finnish star Sebastian Aho explained. “You don’t want to make mistakes, and you want to not give them 3-on-2s and that kind of stuff. 

“It’s easy to say now you have to play for a little bit more offence, make them play defence. But it’s not easy for sure.”

The Canadians trusted that if they slammed often enough, the nail would drive through.

“We knew it in the dressing room. We knew,” Bo Horvat said. “We could feel it coming, and it was just a matter of time.”

Cooper spoke to his players about a tactical switch: Get pucks low to high. Drive ’em from the point. Make life messy in the blue paint.

“It was just a relentless pressure that we knew eventually we’d be able to crack them,” wrecking ball Bennett said. “We needed more traffic, more pucks to the net, and then we got that. That’s how we scored. It shows that you’ve just got to keep pushing.”

When Brad Marchand drew a high-sticking penalty, Sam Reinhart — who had a rather quiet tournament until Friday — got his stick on a Cale Makar point shot.

Reinhart’s power-play marker chopped the Finns’ lead in half.

“Five-on-five, we’re carrying the play,” Reinhart said, following a second period in which the favourites outshot their opponents 14-3.

“(Makar) is the best in the world at taking that ice. A lot of it’s being in the right spot for him. You’re trying to take the goalie’s eyes away because he’s got probably the best shot in the world from the top of the circles. Then, when he shoots it that hard, it’s almost instinct. You’re not really thinking about it.”

Still, the diminutive Saros stood tall. And the patient Finns packed the house, content to get outshot and wait for counterattacks. Or simply hold on tight.

Anton Lundell put it best: “We have four great lines. We just got to keep growing and take the time and space away from them.”

“Pretty much everyone on that team is such a good two-way player, so they defend really well,” Nick Suzuki acknowledged, characterizing this as Canada’s toughest test yet.

Most of us assumed Canada’s firepower, which racked up 20 goals in three round-robin games, would overwhelm all comers.

Alas, not the defending Olympic champs, who kept this one tight and tense.

Defenceman Shea Theodore, another breakout star in this game, came up clutch, blasting a point shot through a cluster of bodies, including Saros’s, with less than 10 minutes to go. The tying goal was the result of a set play Canada drew up.

Screener Brad Marchand was in the crease, but Finland coach Antti Pennanen did not challenge for goalie interference — a source of hot debate in Scandinavia:

Unsatisfied with pushing the thing to another 3-on-3 overtime, Canada kept its foot on the pedal. Nathan MacKinnon drew a high-sticking penalty on a forecheck, then slammed a power-play one-timer home with just 36 ticks on the clock.

“That’s what he does,” Marchand said. 

“He’s one of the most intense people I’ve ever met — and driven at that. His dedication to the game and to getting better and to being the best, it really is impressive. And you have to see it to really understand how dialled in he is and the sacrifices he makes. It’s all to build for moments like this. When the pressure’s the highest, when the moments are the biggest, he wants to be the guy, to be the difference-maker and take over.”

Because Pennanen did challenge that Canada went offside on the zone entry, the Maple Leaf–flapping fans in the building and gathered in bars got to celebrate MacKinnon’s winner twice.

McDavid explained that he and his fellow power-play weapons have been discussing 5-on-4 tactics for more than a year, dating back to 4 Nations. The PP has put in extensive work in practices here in addition to video sessions and side conversations about positioning and seams to seek.

“We do it for these big moments and found a way to score a big one in a big moment,” McDavid said. “We kind of had (the killers) out there for a little bit. They want to do the trap-down pressure, you get a little bit tired, and that’s when you can really expose them. I tried to feather one over there earlier, and a guy got a stick on it. But (MacKinnon) was open again.

“Everybody can make a play; everybody can score. I thought we were dangerous the whole two minutes. Only a matter of time on that one.”

Canada’s mighty power play has already converted seven times in this tournament, buzzing at 43.8 per cent.

Special teams sending a special team for its shot at gold against the Americans on Sunday.

Never a doubt, eh?

Set your alarms, Canada. 

Feel this building.

“You can’t explain it,” Seth Jarvis said. “It’s just incredible. A ton of emotion, a ton of energy. It’s just a great, great feeling.”

Fox’s Fast Five

• Crosby tested his suspected knee injury in a closed session Friday morning but was unable to play, and the team only learned of his status minutes before puck drop. 

As a result, McDavid wore Canada’s C, MacKinnon was given an A, and Nick Suzuki slid into Crosby’s vacated centre position between Mitch Marner and Mark Stone.

Crosby’s status for Sunday is unknown, but 48 more hours of recovery will help.

“There was a lot of talk about doing that for Sid,” Bennett says. “He’s meant the most for all of us, and I think all of Canadians, for a long time. He’s done so much for the game of hockey. Yeah, we’re hoping we can get him back.”

Adds Wilson: “Every guy that laces up their skates wanted to make him proud. You know he’s watching.”

Literally. 

McDavid, who set a new NHL-participation record with 13 points, says Crosby is watching the game closely, dissecting the Finnish game plan, and sharing pointers. 

“He was definitely there and having those conversations,” McDavid says.

• Teenager Macklin Celebrini continues to astound. The tournament’s leading goal scorer was arguably the best player in the game, skating a team-high 25:53, registering a game-high eight shots, and assisting on the winner.

“I think he’s gotta be the youngest one ever for Canada,” Doughty said.

What about yourself in 2010?

“I didn’t play as good as him.”

You sure?

“Pretty positive.”

• Play-by-play czar Chris Cuthbert noted early that no NHLer has scored more goals on Binnington than Mikko Rantanen (15). 

Minutes later, Rantanen opened the scoring with an absolute snipe off a power-play draw.

Jinx? Nah, Cuthbert also had this moment earlier in the day:

• Juuse Saros hasn’t wowed in Nashville this season, posting an .892 save percentage, but he’s been lights-out in Milan.

His 36-save performance in the semifinal gives him .934 save percentage in the Olympics.

“In a game where the six-foot-two goalie is now becoming average size, he has found a way to be a superstar,” Cooper says. “The way he tracks pucks and the way he moves, I don’t know if there’s a goalie in the league that does it better.

“So, you’re down 2-0, and you’re thinking, OK, we got to pierce Finland’s stout defence. But honestly, the big worry for me is, like, how are you gonna get to Saros?”

• Throwing Bennett, Marchand, and Tom Wilson all on the ice at once is, uh, something.

Wilson calls it “controlled chaos.”

Cooper had been thinking about assembling this ‘Rat Line’ for a while, but was waiting for the right time. The coach walked by Wilson and Bennett stretching this morning and said, “Maybe I’ll get you out there together tonight.”

He wasn’t joking.

Funny enough, the three forecheckers had discussed such a unit before the tournament began.

“We definitely talked about hopefully getting a chance,” Bennett says. “We’re all guys that understand the energy side of the game. We’re a line that’s gonna give it our all every single shift. We’re gonna try and swing the momentum, if we can, just try and wear them down shift after shift.”

“We didn’t have to say much,” Wilson says. “We knew how we wanted to play.”