Hockey's night

 He was all by his lonesome high in the slot, the wallflower at a middle school dance, and here at last was the lapse that would end it. Best hockey player on the planet, and not a soul in blue marking him. Connor McDavid, just hangin' around.

And now here came the puck to him off the stick of Mitch Marner.

And here was McDavid (of course!) snapping off a perfect shot -- top shelf to the glove side of Connor Hellebouck in the Team USA goal -- and the puck nested in the roof of the goal and McDavid went tearing off into the corner and everyone in red engulfed him in a joyous happy scrum.

Canada 3, United States 2.

Canada 3, United States 2 ... in overtime ... in the 4-Nations Face-Off championship game ... on U.S. soil in the TD Garden in Boston ... in front of a howling America First crowd wearing American flags and  MAGA hats and dressed as eagles and Founding Fathers and who knows what all.

Hell of a W for the Canadians, a whole nation that had its back up because our oafish president decided for some oafish reason to belittle it and threaten it and make juvenile wisecracks about Canada becoming America's 51st state.

Hell of a W for hockey and the NHL, which launched the 4 Nations Face-Off to replace its worthless All-Star game and got a gift from the gods when the Oaf-in-Chief chose to pick on our good neighbor to the north, adding a delicious layer of enmity to the 4 Nations that wouldn't otherwise have been there.

"You can't take our country -- and you can't take our game," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau snarked on social media late last night, a taunt no fair-minded person could say the oaf didn't have coming.

On the other hand, what we all had coming, and got, was that rarest of things: A sequel that not only lived up to the original, and perhaps exceeded it.

That's because what got the 4 Nations Face-Off revved up was the first Canada-USA meeting six days in Montreal, which began with a "Slapshot"-like dropping of the gloves -- three fights in the first nine seconds -- and ended in a 3-1 U.S. victory. That put the tournament on the path to last night's immensely anticipated finale.

Which was 68-plus minutes of everything that makes hockey the best of all our games when it comes down to win-or-else.

Offense? 

How about both teams tearing up and down the ice without a pause, one rush leading to another rush the other way, over and over, all night long?

Defense?

How about U.S. defenseman Jacob Slavin blunting Canadian chances with one heads-up play after another in his own zone? Or Brady Tkachuk wallpapering the glass with various unfortunates wearing the maple leaf?

And then there was the goaltending ...

But honest, now. How could even the most rabid "USA! USA!' shouter not appreciate Canadian goalie Jordan Binnington reaching back five years to his rookie season, when he stonewalled the Boston Bruins in Game 7 to bring the Stanley Cup to St. Louis?

That Binnington was this Binnington last night, making 31 saves including 20 in a row across the third period and overtime, stealing food off the Americans' plates with jaw-droppers like the flailing glove save he made on Tkachuk in overtime?

That should have ended it, Tkachuk camped on the doorstep as the puck skittered around in the crease. But somehow Binnington sprawled across the goalmouth, got the mitt up, swallowed the puck in one mighty gulp.

A few minutes later, and here was Connor McDavid alone in the slot.

A few minutes after that, 37-year-old Sidney Crosby was hoisting the 4 Nations trophy, and the red maple-leaf flag was suddenly everywhere, and the Canadian were standing arm-in-arm as "O Canada" rang through the Garden.

Hell of a night for them.

Hell of a night for hockey.

Hell of a promo for the Olympic hockey tournament coming up next year in Italy.

"I think guys that are at home watching, I'm hoping they're wanting a piece of it," said U.S. forward Dylan Larkin, who plays his NHL hockey in Detroit, Hockeytown itself. "This grew the game really well, but I hope it pushes guys to want a piece of this and then the next generation that got to watch this, they're going to watch the Olympics next year and hopefully there's a different outcome."

And even if there isn't ... who can't wait to find out now?