Team USA is in the finals! Defeating the Canadians on their home turf, the Americans secured a spot in next Thursday’s 4 Nations Face-Off championship game at TD Garden. But the final whistle of the match wasn’t close to what got the fans cheering the loudest last night at Bell Centre. Instead, it was how the Tkachuk brothers got things going with a healthy dose of fisticuffs right off the bat.

Matthew and Brady Tkachuk were already on the edge after the crowd booed the US national team and the anthem during its match against Finland last Thursday. When the same incident repeated last night before the high-stakes match against Canada, it probably triggered something in the mind of the NHL brothers. And they lunged at it: Matthew threw off his gloves to take the fight to Brandon Hagel, while Brady got it on with Sam Bennett just seconds later. And the crowd couldn’t stop hollering. But their hockey Hall of Famer dad wasn’t among the ones to egg the Tkachuks on.

The 1996 Hockey World Cup winner Keith Tkachuk talked about his squeamish feelings to see his sons brawling at the 4 Nations Face-Off in an article by NHL from February 16. “We were pretty nervous. Nobody likes to see their kid fight. But I knew Brady could handle it fine,” said the Tkachuk brothers’ father with an uneasy smile.

“Those two are lunatics. I don’t know what to tell you. They’re great kids off the ice, but on the ice, you know, they’re funny. I love the personality,” Keith said further about how Matthew and Brady’s mindset going into a top-level match always helps the team to feel confident, irrespective of who is standing against them.

But where do the two boys get their ‘funny’ on-ice attitude attitude, you might wonder? Where indeed. At the 1996 World Cup match against Canada, Keith got embroiled in a fight with Claude Lemieux twenty seconds into the game. Maybe that’s why the senior Tkachuk enjoyed last night’s match so much. “…it was unbelievable, the electricity in the building,” he said about how the atmosphere was top-notch at the Bell Centre on Sunday. And the Tkachuk brothers stepping up, only made Keith smile. “I’m proud of them,” he was quoted saying about his sons in the recent NHL article. He had every right to be because Matthew and Brady’s antics were just the prelude to a thrilling match.

The Tkachuk brothers set the tone

Connor McDavid bagged the first goal of the match. The Oilers captain made a dream run with the puck and bamboozled the USA’s goalie Connor Hellebuyck for a top-tier finish to give Team Canada the lead. The home crowd thought the match was already in their pockets. Boy, were they wrong. Because while the Tkachuk brothers had stopped using their fighting, their team still had a lot of fight left in them.

Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel quickly evened the odds, before Detroit’s Dylan Larkin put the team forward with another goal in the second period. In the third period, the Americans made the most of an empty net and Guentzel scored his second of the night to help the squad pull away, pouring a bucket of cold water on all the high hopes the Canadian fans had about winning the match. The latest game between the hockey heavyweights was their first clash against each other in almost a decade, and the loss obviously hurt McDavid’s team.

“…it sucks it didn’t go our way, but it seems far from over,” Team Canada captain said after the defeat, but hoped the next match against Finland would help to lift the spirits. Moreover, with star defenseman Cale Makar expected to get back to his position in the Candian blueline for Monday’s game, the team could make amends for the defeat against the US. But even if they beat the Finns and get to the finals, the Tkachuk brothers will perhaps be waiting to welcome with feisty hands once again. Are you excited to see a replay of the Bell Centre at TD Garden like other hockey connoisseurs too? Tell us who you’d want to face Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off finale below!