Zach Werenski and his United States teammates are headed to Boston after clinching a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship Thursday with a fiery 3-1 victory over Canada on Saturday night at Bell Centre.
Werenski, the Blue Jackets’ top defenseman, finished with an assist in the win over Canada and now has four points on four assists through the first two games of the tournament. Canada, however, was a bigger personal challenge for Werenski.
More:Zach Werenski’s 3 assists help U.S. rout Finland to open play in 4 Nations Face-Off
Unlike Thursday in a U.S. rout over Finland, Werenski didn’t lead his team in ice time and skated just 13:47 on 20 shifts. He was also beaten along with defense partner Charlie McAvoy on Connor McDavid’s lone goal for Canada to open the scoring 5:31 into the game.
That was about five minutes after the game’s raucous start, which included Canadian fans booing the U.S. national anthem and U.S. players responding by starting two of three fights in the game’s first nine seconds — including two by Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk.
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The elder Tkachuk, Matthew, fought Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel, and his younger brother, Brady, scrapped with Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett — Matthew’s NHL teammate. The fights electrified an arena that was already charged by recent geopolitical tensions between the two countries, and it was an ugly display to start a “best-on-best” rivalry that already has high emotions baked into it.
Werenski was credited with the second assist on the first of two goals scored by Lightning forward Jake Guentzel, who tied it 1-1 at 10:15 of the first with a soft shot from the left wing that squirted through Canadian goalie Jordan Binnington’s pads. Werenski was involved at the start of the play in the U.S. zone before Jack Eichel grabbed the puck and carried it to the other end.
He slipped a short pass to Guentzel for what looked like a harmless shot from the lower half of the left faceoff circle, but the puck snuck through Binnington’s pads to tie it 1-1 midway through the first. Guentzel also scored into an empty net to seal it with an insurance goal set up by Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin, who finished with two points after adding that assist to his winning goal scored with 6:27 left in the second.
The only bad news for the U.S. happened late in the third when Matthew Tkachuk stopped taking shifts and watched the end of the game from the bench while nursing an undisclosed injury. Canada played without star defenseman Cale Makar, who missed the game with an illness.
The tournament will conclude at TD Garden in Boston, where the U.S. will play Sweden and Canada will play Finland on Monday to complete round-robin play. The U.S. leads the standings after two games with six points, guaranteeing a spot in the championship, while Canada, Sweden and Finland are all knotted at two points each.
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