"He saved us" Binnington wins goalie duel to push Canada to Four Nations Championship

BOSTON, Massachusetts — The championship game of the first and perhaps last Four Nations Face-Off was, in the end, the story of two goalies.

The United States brought the best netminder in the world, Connor Hellebuyck, who has been top-four in Vezina voting five of the last seven seasons and is on track to win again this year, which would be the second in a row and third of his career.

Canada brought Jordan Binnington, who hasn't gotten a single Vezina vote in any of the last four seasons and whose inclusion on the roster has been derided as the clear weak point for his team since his inclusion was announced.

With little, or maybe nothing, separating the rest of the US and Canadian rosters from one another, the latter absolutely needed Binnington to rise to Hellebuyck's level, if only for 60 minutes. Then it turned into more than 60, and that was when Binnington outshined his counterpart, making a handful of key stops while Hellebuyck conceded on one of just four shots in OT.

In the end, Hellebuyck stopped 24 of 27, and Binnington 31 of 33. Binnington won the duel, and Canada 3-2 in overtime.

Sidney Crosby, who knows a thing or two about clutch performances in best-on-best play, put it simply and best: “I don't think I have enough words. So poised. … He saved us.”

It was that close, a razor-thin margin.

"We had three or four grade-A looks, we don't score. 

They get an icing, and they score. You know, um I don't know that we can dissect it any more than that," said US head coach Mike Sullivan. "It was a pretty even hockey game where both teams had momentum at different times. I thought it was an incredible display of hockey on both sides. You know, this is the very best of the best out there. There was no room to make plays."

Following an incredible pregame atmosphere that quickly settled into a nervous energy, the fans didn't have to wait long to exhale. Less than five minutes in, a seemingly harmless Nathan MacKinnon wrister from way downtown snuck through a handful of players and beat Connor Hellebuyck. The old adage is that goalies of his quality will stop anything they see, but there was no clear line of sight and the puck sailed past him at a too-leisurely pace.

Hellebuyck made up for it shortly after, stuffing multiple goalmouth attempts from a too-open Sidney Crosby and, later, Sam Bennett (who was Canada's most dangerous player of the game by far). Those are two guys who make a lot of money because they're incredibly dangerous around the crease, and Hellebuyck shut them down, alleviating a pressure that could have quickly doubled Canada's one-goal lead.

"He's unbelievable," said US center and fellow Michigander Dylan Larkin. "I think he's one of the best players in the world, and when you have a guy like that back there, it just calms you down. He's a superstar and he's so steady."

Late in the first period, Mike Sullivan decided, for the second time in the tournament, to mix his lines after early struggles against Canada and once again found near-immediate success. He swapped Auston Matthews onto the top line for Jack Eichel, and he immediately generated a real Tkachuk-style goal for Brady Tkachuk, popping a pass out from behind the goal, where the big winger poked it up over Binnington from the top of the crease to tie the game.

That was a play the US had attempted a number of times, trying to center the puck from below the goal line, and it found paydirt on the third try. It was tied after one period, and little separated the teams, let alone the goalies.

Matthews generated another goal midway through the second, with a shot off Binnington's that produced a rebound so large it looked like it came off a trampoline. It bounced straight to Jake Sanderson for his first of the tournament.

But when that happened, Canada buckled down, protecting the net and becoming a little more enterprising in attack. Not long after, Adam Fox found himself out to sea defending a break-in on the US zone, giving Bennett acres of space behind Brock Nelson, and he sniped it to tie the game late in the second.

The problem for the US as the game wore on was that the Canadians were doing an increasingly effective job shielding Binnington from interior shots, and rarely allowed the Americans to establish themselves in the attacking zone. There were rush chances, for sure. Probably too many for Canada's liking, but Binnington was equal to them and the defense averted further danger.

"We all thought he would be amazing tonight," MacKinnon said. "Even privately, we were talking and we expected a great game out of him and we got one, so, very thankful for that."

Part of the improvement for Canada, no doubt, was that the hosts were playing a man short, with a clearly ailing Matthew Tkachuk held to just a handful of shifts in the second period and moving gingerly for only short periods of time when he did get out there. Their lines were consequently in disarray, and it was obvious the US just could not be as incisive as it had been early.

But in OT, Binnington very very very  much rose to the occasion, stopping multiple chances in tight against guys like Matthews and Brady Tkachuk, showing the kind of game-breaking poise he exhibited in winning the Stanley Cup in the same building in 2019. But now it felt as though the US was knocking on the door with a battering ram.

That is, right up until the US iced the puck and Canada got a line with Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner, and Brayden Point on the ice. They won the draw, worked it below the goal, and Marner found the best player on earth without a US defender within 15 feet of him. Even if he'd been relatively anonymous most of the night, you can't give a player like that a look like that.

"We just needed one look, and Connor was very open, so that was nice," MacKinnon said. "Usually when he's that open, it's in the net."

Put another way, even the best goalie in the world can't save everything, and sometimes the goalie no one expected to win that kind of battle just stands on his head.

"Were there stressful moments for both goalies during the game? For sure there were," said Canada coach Jon Cooper. "It wasn't something where, if this game was won in regulation, we were gonna sit there and say, you know, Jordan Binnington saved the game. But when it came to overtime and we needed him most, tomake the saves you supposed to, and then make a few that you're not, he saved his best for last. And that's what winners do, and there wasn't a chance I was not gonna back the winner."