Elated fans across the country are celebrating Canada’s victory over the United States in the hotly-anticipated 4 Nations Face-Off final.
Against a politically-charged backdrop, Canada’s Connor McDavid scored the winner, in a spectacular 3-2 overtime finish against the country’s fierce North American rival, Thursday night in Boston.
Hundreds of fans exploded out of their seats at YVR Greta in Vancouver, hugging each other and shouting “Canada! Canada! Canada!” after McDavid beat U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck with a winning shot over his left shoulder.
Canadian pride was off the charts at Peel Pub in downtown Montreal, where rowdy celebrations in the packed bar led to beer glasses smashing all over the floor. In Calgary, fans hung around at Last Best Brewing & Distilling to sing “O Canada” one last time.
It wasn’t enough that the one-off men’s hockey tournament marked the return of top NHL stars after nearly a decade away from high-level international play.
The Canada-U.S. matchups ramped up in historical significance when U.S. President Donald threatened severe tariffs against its close ally and mused about making the nation the 51st state.
Trump stoked the fire Thursday morning, using that rhetoric yet again in a social media post supporting the American team.
A recent survey conducted by Rogers showed that 60 per cent of Canadians who were aware of the tournament believed a victory would mean more under the political and economic circumstances.
“I am the proudest I’ve been of my country for quite a long time,” said Marcus McKlein in Montreal, who was decked in red and waving a Canadian flag despite admittedly not knowing much about hockey.
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Boston fans booed “O Canada” before the puck dropped Thursday in an apparent response to the recent jeers that have echoed in Canadian NHL arenas, including Saturday’s chaotic Canada-U.S. round-robin matchup at Montreal’s Bell Centre.
Canadian nationalism was on full display again at Peel Pub. Fans stood on guard and belted out the national anthem with pride before mercilessly booing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
In Calgary and Vancouver, meanwhile, fans held back their jeers for the U.S. anthem.
American fans who braved the pro-Canadian bars in Montreal and Vancouver, however, heard their fair share throughout the night.
“It’s always been big, but now, especially because I’m here, and the geopolitical tensions right now, it feels like (the rivalry is) at the peak,” said Naim Temlock, a former McGill student from Chicago. “And this is the first best on best in, I don’t know how many years, which is amplified.”
The first Canada-U.S. encounter on Saturday — a 3-1 U.S. win where tensions boiled over onto the ice with three fights in the opening nine seconds — drew 10.1 million viewers across North America.
Canadian fan Jean Levesque, who drove from Montreal to Boston to catch the final, said he’s never seen the Canada-U.S. rivalry reach this level.
“This is different,” he said outside TD Garden. “Last week in Montreal, they were saying that if ever you shut the power from Hydro-Québec that powers all the electricity in the province, and plug a wire into the Bell Centre, you’d light up the whole province.”
In Vancouver, people at a watch party couldn’t contain their excitement, jumping up and down and waving Canadian flags when Nathan MacKinnon scored to put Canada up 1-0.
The mood shifted from joy to disbelief when the U.S. took a 2-1 lead, as fans held their heads in their hands.
But Sam Bennett eventually equalized for Canada before McDavid’s golden goal allowed a nation to exhale.
The United States has long played second-fiddle to Canada in men’s international hockey. Canada also triumphed on U.S. soil with a 5-2 gold-medal win over the Americans at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Sidney Crosby’s golden goal famously lifted Canada past the U.S. at the 2010 Olympic final in Vancouver.
“It wasn’t much of a rivalry up until 2010 — Crosby got us,” said U.S. fan Chris Leduc, who attended the game in Boston with his son Chase. “Now it’s starting to become a rivalry, right?”
Leduc, wearing the U.S. jersey of 1980 Olympic and “Miracle On Ice” hero Mike Eruzione, called Thursday’s final “the most anticipated, the most watched and the most talked about hockey game in the last 15 years.”
The 4 Nations — the closest men’s hockey has seen to best-on-best hockey since the 2016 World Cup — is considered an appetizer for the NHL’s return to the Olympics in 2026.
NHL players participated in five Olympics between 1998 and 2014, before missing the 2018 and 2022 Games.
— With files from Joshua Clipperton in Boston, Nono Shen in Vancouver and Matthew Scace in Calgary.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
