U.S. defeats Canada, clinches spot in 4 Nations Face-Off ...

It was the United States’ first win against Canada in a best-on-best international tournament since the preliminary round of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on Feb. 21, 2010.

Larkin had a goal and an assist, and Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves for the U.S., which leads the tournament standings with six points (2-0-0-0) because of two regulation wins, including 6-1 against Finland on Thursday.

Canada (0-1-0-1), Sweden and Finland each has two points. A regulation win is worth three points, so the United States can't be caught for first place when the remaining two games of the round-robin portion are played at TD Garden in Boston on Monday.

The championship game is at TD Garden on Thursday.

"It's exciting to guarantee to be in Thursday, but we still have a big one Monday (against Sweden)," U.S. forward Brady Tkachuk said. "I guess it can be easy to get complacent, but this group I don't even think it's going to get in our mind that we're happy with where we're at. I think we know what's at stake here. We know what our goal has been right from the start, and I don't think we're going to stop until we get it."

Connor McDavid scored, and Jordan Binnington made 20 saves for Canada.

Canada will clinch a berth in the final with a regulation win against Finland on Monday (1 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS). Finland will do the same if it defeats Canada in regulation.

"It was fast, tight-checking, competitive, emotional," McDavid said. "It had everything you would want in a hockey game. It [stinks] it didn't go our way, but this thing's far from over."

The intensity and emotion of the rivalry were evident from the opening face-off as there were three fights in the first nine seconds.

"Mayhem," Canada coach Jon Cooper said. "That was the first minute."