NHL: 4 Nations Face Off-Canada vs Finland – Source: Imagn

Connor McDavid and Team Canada punched their ticket to the finals of the 4 Nations Face-Off with a 5-3 win over Team Finland on Monday afternoon.

Canada dominated the vast majority of the virtual knockout game and held on despite a late push that brought the Finns within one goal late in the third period. Superstars Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon led the way from the start scoring back-to-back goals in the first five minutes to jumpstart the Canadians.

Former NHLer, now TSN hockey analyst Frank Corrado went on the “SC with Jay Onrait” show on Monday night and gave his thoughts on the performance from Team Canada and its top players:

“It was the best they executed. And a lot of that has to do with the lineup changes that Jon Cooper made, so you have to give him some credit for recognizing that it wasn’t necessarily working.”But, you know, putting Mark Stone and then putting Brayden Point with Connor McDavid, that really worked, and then Sam Reinhart worked with Nathan MacKinnon. “

Corrado added:

“So it was a nice compliment for all of those players, and it was a nice answer-back, and the big boys carried the weight for this team, and it’s just a different game when these guys score early and then you could almost, not put it in cruise control, but feel like you’re control of the game, it just it doesn’t stress the team as much.

“These guys had a really nice performance, and it’s nice to know that the offensive outburst was there now, you have to go ahead and do it against the Americans.”

Both Connor McDavid (one goal, one assist) and Nathan MacKinnon (two goals), who is in a eight-year, $100,800,000 deal, registered two points each. They’ll look to carry that momentum into Thursday night’s 4 Nations final against the US.

Connor McDavid’s new look line sparked Team Canada

Team Canada’s top line of Connor McDavid, Sam Reinhart and Mitch Marner was not clicking through the first two games of the tournament.

Head coach Jon Cooper was looking for a spark and shuffled his forward lines. He changed the Oilers superstars’ wingers to Brayden Point and Mark Stone, which paid massive dividends. Stone forced a turnover on McDavid’s unassisted goal, and Point put home a rebound on a setup from McDavid later in the first period.

Meanwhile, Sam Reinhart was put on a line with Nathan MacKinnon, and Sidney Crosby, which worked just as well. The three players combined for seven points (three goals, four assists), and a +9 rating in the win over Finland.

Team Canada will bring those new lines into the 4 Nations final against Team USA on Thursday night. The puck drops at 8 p.m. EST at TD Garden in Boston.