The Tkachuks pulled off a plural miracle. To sum it up perfectly, an unlikely union on the rink and family beyond, this evening belonged to brothers Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk of Team USA. After all, it was an extraordinary feat that was ordinarily achieved. Team USA drubbed their Finnish counterparts 6-1 at Montréal’s Bell Centre in their first game of the 4-Nations face-off, placing them as the No.1 contenders in the tournament’s points tally, followed by Canada.

Coach Mike Sullivan is a genius. Despite Finland’s inaugural goal seven minutes into the game by Finnish ‘D’ man Henri Jokiharju, Team USA wasted no time to catch up to speed, tallying the scoreboard 1-1 with a goal of their own by Brady Tkachuk ten minutes into the first period. We think this is the moment that Coach Sullivan drew inspiration from and pivoted game strategy to shuffle USA’s lineups.

In the post-game press conference, Mike Sullivan was asked to walk reporters through his decision of pairing Matthew and Brady Tkachuk along with Jack Eichel. Curiousity piled on with rife assumptions as to whether this was a preempted move by Team USA.

“Yea well you know we put combinations together..talked about the last couple of days.. haven’t had an opportunity to see it in action, so um, the other aspect of it is the nature of the tournament, it’s not like there is a lot of time, to let these things play out..so we were gonna watch and see what we liked and from there maybe we could effect a little bit of change..uh..Im not gonna lie when I was thinking about the line combinations and having the discussions with our coaches and staff, the conversation did come up about putting Brady and Matthew together, um, you know I think those two, not only are they great players but great team mates.. and I also think that you know its pretty cool when you have an opportunity to play with your brother, there might be some added motivation or some added inspiration, uh, to wanna play.. and so, uh, that was something that we thought about, talked about with coaches and staff before the tournament even started, so they are 2 real good players..there is, I thought, when we made the switch, we put them with Jack Echel.. um, I think they just have a funny way of dragging us into the fight..”

Sullivan’s intuition worked wonders for Team USA. Entering into the third period of the game, the initial minute did not allow for the crowd to recoup with reality as Matthew Tkachuk flicked the puck from a long range bypassing the Finnish Goalie Juuse Saros to land into the net. With no time to even blink, Jake Guentzel followed suit with a goal of his own adding on to Saros’ woes of providing leeway for the American forwards.

While the first minute of the third period provided enough fireworks to seal Team USA’s win, the remainder of time left did not bode well for Finland’s dwindling hope. Brady Tkachuk followed in his brother’s footsteps scoring two consecutive goals of his own, three minutes into the third period. The siblings’ strength shone through brighter when Matthew Tkachuk maintained the same momentum despite USA’s staggering lead and went on to add two more goals to his name.

Brace for impact, Bell Centre!

Throughout the history of sports, several studies have been conducted to study the correlation between audience support and whether the presence of a favorable audience increases a team’s chances of winning. But in the case of the Thursday evening game in Montréal, what transpired was the opposite of this theory. The Americans entered the rink to a disparaging and opposing crowd that welcomed the Finnish players with much cheer.

The Canadian crowd took the rivalry between the countries one step further by ridiculing the rendition of the Star Spangled Banner just before the game with expletives, despite continued attempts by the PA to maintain civility. While for most teams this would be disheartening, Team USA had a completely different approach as a response to the audience through the game at hand.

The disparity in support turned out to be enough fuel for the Tkachuk brothers to vanquish their opponents on ice and the spectators around the rink.

The back to back goals and the tenacity with which the siblings demonstrated exemplary game was just a teaser of what is to come when Team USA faces their Canadian counterparts in this very same Bell Centre. The long standing rivalry in hockey combined with the brewing political tensions between the countries have added on to the strained relationship between the neighbours both on and off the ice. While the Tkachuk brothers didn’t quite seem pleased at the disrespect meted out to them, we can expect the February 15 face-off to be relentless and USA’s attempt to avenge.

Sullivan’s quick feet thinking demonstrated how a simple shuffle can turn tables for Team USA. While this victory has been a source of confidence boost for the Americans, an imperative question still lingers on. Will Coach Sullivan be relying on the Tkachuk siblings again in their upcoming game against Team Canada? Do tell us your thoughts below.