Late MacKinnon Blast sends Canada to the Gold Medal Game

With 35 seconds to go in the semifinal clash with Finland, the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native sends his country to the Gold Medal game. Doing so in the absence of his Idol, and fellow Cole Harbour native Sidney Crosby.

Drama once again

The entire country of Canada fell silent after the shorthanded goal by Erik Haula that put the Finns up 2-0 early in the game. Finland immediately went into a defensive shell, parking the bus and limiting any clean looks for Canada.

Canada’s 13th forward, Sam Reinhart, finally broke the ice with under six minutes to go in the second period, tipping in a point shot from Cale Makar.

It seemed like all the Canadians could do was fire shots from deep and pray someone would get a touch on it. The Finns held a strong defensive formation for the final two periods of the game, ignoring offence entirely.

John Cooper countered this by assembling the ultimate “F you line”, with notable agitators in Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, and Tom Wilson.

With under ten to go in the third, Canada set all three up in front of the net, completely blinding Finnish netminder Jude Saros. This allowed defenceman Shea Theodore to wire a puck through on goal, and squeak one past Saros for the equalizer.

A late Finnish penalty set up the star-studded Canadian power play with a chance to equalize in the dying minutes of the game. A mad scramble opened up a seam for newly crowned captain Connor McDavid to set up MacKinnon for a one-time blast that again barely snuck through Saros, putting Canada up by a goal with 35 seconds to go.

The country finally exhaled and burst into a frenzy. An offside challenge from the Finns muzzled this excitement momentarily, but it wasn’t enough. The goal was good. Canada is headed to the Gold Medal game once again and will be taking on either the Slovaks or their bitter rivals, the USA.