United States winger Matthew Tkachuk started the festivities by dropping the gloves with Canada’s Brandon Hagel. Brady Tkachuk followed in his brother’s footsteps with Sam Bennett. Then, J.T. Miller took the worst of it from Canada’s Colton Parayko.
“The message we wanted to send was that it’s our time,” Matthew said. “We’re in a hostile environment and we want to show that we’re not backing down. We’ve had so much success, and so many players over there, are the best players in the world.
“We felt in this environment, on this stage in the tournament, and you’ve got to give those guys credit because they did the exact same thing.”
This was a planned attack.
“There was a little discussion going on during the day. There was a group chat,” said Brady.