Canada Takes the Title in the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, USA Places Second

On Thursday, February 20th, 2025, the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship consisted of the United States of America taking on Canada. After a fantastic game, Canada took the win for the first 4 Nations Face-Off since 2018. 
​by Drew Caraway and Justin Andrio

USA vs. Canada Championship Recap (ESPN)
Canada defeated the United States in overtime. The scoring started when Canada took the lead, 4:48 into the game. Nathan MacKinnon scored the goal, assisted by Thomas Harley and Sam Reinhart. The USA struck back 16:52 into the first period, on a Brady Tkachuk goal assisted by Auston Matthews. 

USA took the lead back after a slow start from both teams. The goal was 7:32 into the second period. Jake Sanderson scored the goal, with Auston Matthews picking up his second assist and Zach Werenski picking up his first assist. Canada tied up the game 14:00 in, with a Sam Bennett goal from an assist by Mitch Marner. 

The third period was slow, with the teams taking 27 total shots, 11 from Canada and 16 from the USA. After a nerve-wrecking overtime period, Connor McDavid, Oilers NHL star, won the game for Canada on a wrist shot assisted by Mitch Marner and Cale Makar. 

​
4 Nations Recap (4 Nations Face-Off)
Canada defeated Sweden to open the tournament, followed by the USA defeating Finland, 6-1, on Wednesday, February 12th and Thursday February 13th. The United States dominance continued, beating Canada 3-1, and Finland beat Sweden earlier that day on the following Saturday. On Monday, February 17th, Canada defeated Finland to secure a rematch against the United States in the Championship, while the United States fell against Sweden. 

USA and Canada Square Up Early (BBC) 
Early on in the four nations face-off, the USA went up against the Canada squad in a heated matchup. These two teams faced off for the first time since 2014 in the Olympic finals.

Starting off the game, fans came to the national anthem of the USA and the Montreal crowd started to boo the US national anthem heavily. 

This upset the United States players so badly, that when it came time to play the first nine seconds of the game, a fight broke loose. The two players squaring up were Matthew Tkachuk (USA) and Brandon Hagel (CANADA). When that fight ended, another ensued between Brady Tkachuk (USA), brother of Matthew, and Sam Bennett (CANADA). Yet another fight broke out, when J.T Miller (USA) started swinging at Colton Parayko (CANADA). 

Canada Coach Jon Cooper stated “It wasn't planned” and “that was as organic as it gets.” The United States won this game, 3-1, and made Canada pay for booing our National Anthem. 

For the first time since 2018, the 4 Nations Face-Off returned and it was very entertaining. However, the fans will not have a 4 Nations Face-Off next year. Instead, it will be the 2026 Winter Olympics, held in Italy.