Nathan MacKinnon Fires Warning Shot at Team USA Ahead of Highly Anticipated Rematch With Canada

With a lot on the line today, Team Canada took care of business against Team Finland, albeit with a very dicey finish as the tournament underdogs came within a goal of a miraculous comeback against Canada.

The Canadians were led by their top players as Nathan MacKinnon scored 2 goals, Connor McDavid opened the scoring, and Sidney Crosby iced the game with a huge empty net goal with the surging towards a comeback.

A regulation win was needed from Canada to seal their own fate and they come out of the gates with gumption in large part due to the return of Cale Makar.

The stud defenseman missed out on their previous contest against Team USA but with his return to the lineup, Team Canada is eyeing a better result come Thursday night.

After the game, MacKinnon touched on the upcoming rematch and how they're going to approach the championship game, as reported by Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

The Americans took it to the Canadians on Saturday with a masterclass effort that saw them completely shut down their top weapons outside of McDavid's opening goal.

What could work in Canada's favour is that Matthew Tkachuk is coming into this one banged up, and sitting out of Monday's contest against Sweden. Charlie McAvoy, too, sat out on Monday with what was believed to be an upper-body ailment.

Team Canada does not want to have made it to the finals just to fall short of avenging their loss to the United States during the round-robin.

If MacKinnon's words are any indication, Canada will come out extra motivated in this one, which could give Team USA more than they can handle.