Canada 5 – Finland 3 Montreal and all of Canada held their collective breaths this afternoon as Finland quickly pulled within one goal on the strength of an extra skater with over a minute left to play.
Here along the Lake, we wholeheartedly cheer with and for our Northern Cousins successes when it comes to hockey (as long as it is not against USA), Thursday the 20th there will be no love lost between hockey’s North American powers.
The United States of America faces-off against Sweden tonight, injury update for one of the Tkachuk brothers (Matthew) with a lower body and is sitting out this game.
4 Nations played two games that produced an OT and an EN
After Finland was blown out in their first game, they came to play against Sweden a team that lost in overtime to a well-stocked Canadian team in their initial effort.
Sweden scored first but Finland responded with two goals on four shots, with one on the powerplay during the first period for the early 2-1 lead.
Then both teams reversed their scoring with Finland scoring once and Sweden twice in the second period for the 3-3 tie, 13 shots in the third period with one penalty produced no scoring.
Sweden drops their second overtime loss as Finland edged their rivals in most statistics for the game including the all-important 4-3 game winning goal.
Last night’s main attraction from the Montreal Bell Centre featured Canada versus the United States of America and it did not disappoint.
That is if you are a fan of pugilism because as soon as the game started three fights erupted over the game’s initial nine seconds, as well as over 60 hits dished out throughout the 3-1 contest.
Physicality, speed, finesse, excellent goaltending, with no penalties in the second and third periods, produced a tight well-played game that had the empty net goal scored with 1:19 remaining in the game.
The Americans took two more shots on the continued Canadian empty net, one off the post and one by Auston Matthews that was blocked.
Center Matthews as well as his NHL teammate RW Nylander on Sweden were booed each time either one of them touched the puck by the discerning Montreal crowd all day Saturday.
February 20th is the 4 NFOT championship game and after one day of rest the NHL resumes play with 14 games Saturday the 22nd, which affords an opportunity during this break to assess the fantasy hockey progress.
The current weekly matchups on pause finish this week with two more days of games Saturday and Sunday before playing the last three weeks of the current FHL season.
My roster changes weekly while I utilize the waiver wire and watch list as a personal farm club to rotate bottom half players in and out according to their recent contributions in point production.
Additionally, I have elected not to play goaltenders this entire FHL season to avoid subtracting points in weekly matchups.
FHL managers realize that netminders are a high-risk, high-reward player and should be cautiously placed on and off the bench, noting that goalies take an active roster spot even if they are not starting the game.
With a 42-point lead over my opponent it is unlikely that I will lose this weekly matchup, but nothing is 100% although this large of a comeback/collapse is near impossible.
At this point in the FHL most leagues have their top four teams set, I have clinched a playoff seeding and my current league has a four or five team spread vying for the last three playoff seedings.
All four tournament teams are playing today beginning at one o’clock this afternoon EST with Sweden and Finland followed by Canada and the United States of America.
Top Finnish players from the NHL took a 1-0 lead early halfway through the first period and developed glorious chances that either went wide or over the crossbar much to Team USA’s good fortune.
Even though Team USA took 13 SOG in the first period and scored three minutes into the second period for the 2-1 lead, the Americans did not appear to have this game “in-hand”.
It was not until Team USA head coach put the Tkachuk brothers together that the team began steamrolling the Finns, Matthew and Brady each scored twice with the older sibling collecting an assist as well.
Just 26 seconds into the third period the Americans score twice in 11 seconds to take a 4-1 commanding lead when a half a minute later the Tkachuk brothers score goal five with 17 minutes remaining in the game.
Matthew Tkachuk scored his second powerplay goal of the game to give Team USA the demoralizing 6-1 advantage as it was an impossible task for Team Finland to score five times in the last nine minutes of the game.
Saturday’s matchups now look promising to be an exciting and hard-fought battle for both contests.
This NHL season we are treated to a round robin tournament with Canada, Sweden, Finland, and the United States of America showcasing most of the top talent in the NHL.
Montreal hosted the first game of the 4 Nations Face-Off 2025 tournament last night, and it was the perfect game for Canadiens in attendance, those at a Pub, or at home glued to their screens.
An amazing line consisting of three Centers, McDavid, Crosby, and MacKinnon opened the scoring as Team Canada took the early 1-0 lead, increased it to 2-0 before Sweden found some offense to score their first tally of the tournament.
Statistically Sweden endeavored to keep pace with Team Canada, but Canada blocked 10 more shots, scored the lone powerplay goal, earned a slight advantage in face-offs, and of course scored in overtime.
The officials allowed the players to play as there was only two high-sticking penalties, one assessed to each team.
After the second period down 3-1 Team Sweden made this game interesting as they scored twice in the third period to tie the game forcing overtime affording Canada’s RW Marner to receive a pass, skate in and score the game winner.
The white elephant in the rink is no Team Russia, thankfully POTUS Trump recently was on the phone with presidents Putin and Zelenskyy arranging an end to their war providing an opportunity for the 2028 World Cup Tournament to have Russia participate.
Buffalo Winter 